INDIA
- Prayer for seven innocent Christians of Orissa who are imprisonedKochi (Agenzia
Fides) - The Church in India is in prayer for the release of seven innocent
Christians in the Indian state of Orissa, in prison for nine years. Their
names are: Bhaskar Sunamajhi, Bijay Sanseth, Buddhadev Nayak, Durjo Sunamajhi,
Gornath Chalanseth, Munda Badamajhi and Sanatan Badamajhi. As Fides learns,
the seven, originally from Kandhamal district, theater of anti-Christian
violence which took place in 2007 and 2008, are unjustly accused of being
among those responsible of the killing of Hindu leader Swami Laxmanananda
Saraswati, killed in Orissa on 23 August 2008. In 2013 a district court
sentenced them and an appeal trial is pending at Cuttack High Court. The
hearing of the trial has been postponed several times. The episode of Hindu
leader's death was the spark that triggered the anti-Christian violence
in 2008. Christians were accused in a pretestuous way of murder, then claimed
and attributed to Maoist groups.

In recent days,
in an assembly of priests held in Kerala on "What Happened in Kandhamal?",
the present recalled that the Indian Church organized prayer vigils for
the Indian Salesian Fr. Tom Uzhunnalil, kidnapped in Yemen and then released.
"Now it is urgent to pray for the innocent of Kandhamal", says to Fides
journalist and Catholic intellectual Anto Akkara, who has traveled many
times to the district and has written several books on the subject. In
one of these investigative books, titled "Who Killed Swami Laxmanananda?",
the journalist reports evidence that clears the seven Christians name.Some priests,
in collaboration with Akkara, have elaborated a special prayer that will
spread among the Catholic communities in Orissa and other states of India.
Bishops, priests, religious and lay Indians throughout the country have
confirmed that they will join the prayer campaign for the seven innocent
victims. "I have no doubt that faith must lead to action. The blood of
martyrs' will inspire the faithful to support the voiceless. After the
launch of the campaign, thousands have already begun praying for the innocent
of Kandhamal", says Akkara to Fides.

Human rights
activists, social workers, journalists, and leaders of the Church have
contested the district court's conclusions that condemned the seven Christians
at first instance: the verdict was based on the theory of a conspiracy
lacking evidence and authenticity. Akkara also launched an online petition
for the release of the seven, sending it to the Chief Judge of the Supreme
Court of India, to the President of India and the President of the National
Human Rights Commission. "This is for me a journey of faith. The Lord has
guided my path in the past nine years, and the petition and the campaign
of prayer emerged from the desire for truth and justice", concludes Akkara.The district
of Kandhamal in the State of Orissa (or Odisha) experienced inter-community
tensions and an unprecedented wave of violence during Christmas in 2007
and then since August 2008. The violence lasted for at least four months,
killed more than 100 people and 56,000 were left without a home

If
Christian ministries are kicked out of India, who will share the Gospel?India, October 13, 2017: Youve heard us talk about Christian ministries
being kicked out of India, including Compassion International earlier this
year. A report from India Briefing last month shows that 24,000 NGOs have
now lost their licenses under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act in
the last year. That is one-third of the NGOs that previously existed in
India before the FCRA.
Many organizations lost their NGO status in India for simply not filing
the proper paperwork. But the NGO reporting requirements have shifting
demands and sometimes sudden deadlines. Ministries have shared it seems
like these are hurdles meant to make it increasingly difficult for non-Hindu
groups to stay in the country.
One of the high-profile cases was Compassion International whose license
in India was revoked earlier this year. They were carrying out ministry
to vulnerable children through local partners in the country.
The Voice of the Martyrs USAs Todd Nettleton explains, Many of those
local partners were rejected from a license to accept funding from outside
the country. So what the Indian government basically did is cut off the
flow of funds that were helping those Christian organizations do that ministry
on the ground in India. Because of that, many of those organizations have
had to stop the ministry. Many of the outside groups have had to stop funding
ministry in India because that money is not allowed to be transferred into
the country.

Since Indias Prime Minister Narendra Modi took power in 2014, hostilities
against Christians have nearly doubled. His background with radical Hindu
nationalists and the RSS have emboldened those groups in their push to
make India a totally Hindu nation.
So if Christian ministries are being systematically kicked out of India,
who will carry on the spread of the Gospel?
Nettleton says, Obviously the local Church is picking up that mantle
and carrying it forward and sharing the Gospel. Thankfully, there is a
great history of Christianity in India. There are churches and groups that
have been operating for decades that are ready to pick that mantle up and
carry it forward. But it is a challenge.
The challenge comes when the local Church has to sometimes carry on
ministry initiatives that were supported by other churches and organizations
outside the country. In that, we need to pray for God to bless these ministry
initiatives, and even seek out other Christian ministries to support that
are still able to send funds to India.

Christian ministries that are still in India have to be cautious with
how obvious they are in their Gospel outreach to avoid the crosshairs of
the FCRA. And accusations akin to anti-blasphemy under Section 295A of
the Indian Penal Code are becoming more frequent. But they dont want to
compromise the biblical message of hope in Christ just to stay in the country.
So where is the balance?
That is a challenging question for the different ministries to answer
as they go forward, observes Nettleton. [There is] that fine line of,
well, we want to be able to stay in the country so we want to be careful
about how we talk about what we do, but we also want to be representatives
of Jesus Christ and we want to be inviting people into fellowship with
Him. Were not going to compromise on that. So thats where that challenge
comes in how you do the work on a day-to-day basis and how you talk about
the work, both inside the country and to your donors and your supporters
around the world.

In addition to praying for Christian ministries and the local Church
in India, theres something else you can pray for.
Maybe something we dont think about as much is praying for the persecutors.
We want to encourage people to pray for even radical Hindu nationalists,
people in the RSS to come to faith in Christ, to have an encounter with
a Christian that shakes up their worldview. You know, when Christians respond
to persecution with love and forgiveness, that really plants a seed of
the Gospel in the heart and in the mind of the persecutor because its
not a human response, its not a natural response. Its a supernatural
response, says Nettleton.
The only explanation is Jesus Christ is real and he is living and
he empowers people to endure persecution with faith and with courage.
- mnn
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Pope praises 'beautiful, complex' diversity of Catholic
Churches in IndiaVatican City, Oct 10, 2017 / 11:24 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis
on Tuesday said the variety of Catholic Churches and rites in India is
a richness for the country that ought to be strengthened, and as a means
of doing so, he expanded the reach of one of the country's indigenous Churches.
The decision moves toward a greater allowance for several bishops from
distinct Catholic Churches in India having a presence in the same territory.
In a world where large numbers of Christians are forced to migrate,
overlapping jurisdictions have become customary and are increasingly effective
tools for ensuring the pastoral care of the faithful while also ensuring
full respect for their ecclesial traditions, Pope Francis wrote in an
Oct. 10 letter addressed to India's bishops.
He said the diversity of ecclesial life in the country shines with
great splendor throughout lands and nations.
Two Catholic Churches based in India's Kerala state trace their origins
to the preaching of the Apostle Thomas: the Syro-Malabar Church, which
follows the East Syrian or Chaldean rite; and the Syro-Malankara Church,
of the West Syrian or Antiochian rite.

The Latin rite Catholic Church also has a large presence throughout
India, having been introduced to the country by missionaries in the 16th
century.
The various Catholic rites in India, Pope Francis said, constitute
a historic Christian presence in India that is both rich and beautiful,
complex and unique.
It is essential for the Catholic Church to reveal her face in all
its beauty to the world, in the richness of her various traditions, he
said, and noted how the Second Vatican Council sought to protect and preserve
the treasure of the particular traditions of each Church, an ongoing mission
today.
His letter accompanied an announcement on the establishment of two
new eparchies (the equivalent of a diocese in the Latin Church) for the
Syro-Malabar Church.
The establishment of the eparchies of Shamshabad (in Uttar Pradesh)
and Hosur (in Tamil Nadu) was announced along with the name of their first
respective bishops: Bishop Raphael Thattil, until now Auxiliary Bishop
of the Syro-Malabar Archdiocese of Trichur, and Fr. Sebastian Pozholiparampil,
a priest of the Syro-Malabar Diocee of Irinjalakuda. The Shamshabad eparchy
will include the entire country of India not already included in existing
Syro-Malabar eparchies.

Pope Francis also extended the boundaries of the eparchies of Ramanathapuram
and Thuckalay, both of which are located in Tamil Nadu state.
In addition to his role as bishop, Thattil also serves as apostolic
visitor for Syro-Malabar faithful in India who live outside of their own
territory, reporting his observations to Rome.
Pope Francis' decision to establish new eparchies for the Syro-Malabar
Church and widen its jurisdiction to essentially all of India mirrors a
similar decision he made in August with the Syro-Malankara Church, when
he reinforced their own presence with the establishment of a new eparchy
and an apostolic visitor to the Syro-Malankara Church in Europe and Oceania.
The establishment of the eparchies also takes place as the Congregation
for the Oriental Churches celebrates its centenary with a variety of activities
in Rome, culminating in Mass with Pope Francis at the Basilica of St. Mary
Major Oct. 12.
In his letter, Pope Francis noted that In India, even after many centuries,
Christians are only a small proportion of the population and, consequently,
there is a particular need to demonstrate unity and to avoid any semblance
of division.

He stated that when the Syro-Malabar Church expanded with missionary
eparchies to parts of northern and central India, it was generally thought
by the Latin Bishops that there should be just one jurisdiction, that is,
one bishop in a particular territory. These eparchies, created from Latin
dioceses, today have exclusive jurisdiction over those territories, both
of the Latin and Syro-Malabar faithful.
However, both in the traditional territories of the Eastern Churches,
as well as in the vast area of the so-called diaspora (where these faithful
have long been established), a fruitful and harmonious cooperation between
Catholic bishops of the different sui iuris Churches within the same territory
has taken place.
Overlapping jurisdictions in India should not longer be problematic,
the Pope wrote, noting that they have already existed in Kerala for some
time, and his own expansion of the Syro-Malankara Church in recent years.
These developments show that, albeit not without problems, the presence
of a number of bishops in the same area does not compromise the mission
of the Church. On the contrary, these steps have given greater impetus
to the local Churches for their pastoral and missionary efforts.

He voiced hope that his decision to broaden the reach of the Syro-Malabar
Church would be welcomed with a generous and peaceful spirit, although
it may be a source of apprehension for some, since many Syro-Malabars,
deprived of pastoral care in their own rite, are at present fully involved
in the life of the Latin Church
Francis stressed his conviction that there is no need for concern:
the Churchs life should not be disrupted by such a provision.
Indeed it must not be negatively interpreted as imposing upon the
faithful a requirement to leave the communities which have welcomed them,
sometimes for many generations, and to which they have contributed in various
ways. It should rather be seen as an invitation as well as an opportunity
for growth in faith and communion with their sui iuris Church, in order
to preserve the precious heritage of their rite and to pass it on to future
generations.

The path of the Catholic Church in India cannot be that of isolation
and separation, but rather of respect and cooperation, he said, adding
that the presence of several bishops of various rites will surely offer
an eloquent witness to a vibrant and marvelous communion.
Francis closed his letter urging the Catholic Churches in India to
be generous and courageous as they witness to the Gospel in the spirit
of fraternity and mutual love.
For the Syro-Malabar Church, this continues the valued work of their
priests and religious in the Latin context, and sustains their availability
for those Syro-Malabar faithful who, although choosing to attend Latin
parishes, may request some assistance from their Church of origin. The
Latin rite Church can continue to generously offer hospitality to members
of the Syro-Malabar communities who do not have church buildings of their
own.
He said that with the growth of spiritual friendship and mutual assistance,
any tension or apprehension should be swiftly overcome. May this extension
of the pastoral area of the Syro-Malabar Church in no way be perceived
as a growth in power and domination, but as a call to deeper communion,
which should never be perceived as uniformity.

Hundreds
of thousands pray rosary at Polish borderFaithful pray from the Baltic Sea coast in the north to the mountains
in the south

Polish Catholics held rosaries and prayed together along the countrys
2,000-mile border on Saturday, appealing to the Virgin Mary and God for
salvation for Poland and the world in a national event that some felt had
anti-Muslim overtones.

The Rosary to the Borders event was organised by lay Catholics but
was also endorsed by Polish church authorities, with 320 churches from
22 dioceses taking part. The prayers took place from the Baltic Sea coast
in the north to the mountains along Polands southern borders with the
Czech Republic and Slovakia, and all along the border of this country of
38 million where more than 90 per cent declare themselves Catholics.
Organisers say the prayers at some 4,000 locations commemorated the
centenary of the apparitions of Fatima, when three shepherd children in
Portugal said the Virgin Mary appeared to them.
But the event also commemorated the huge 16th-century naval battle
of Lepanto, when a Christian alliance acting on the wishes of the Pope
defeated Ottoman Empire forces on the Ionian Sea, thus saving Europe from
Islamisation, as organisers put it. Prime Minister Beata Szyd?o showed
her support by tweeting an image of rosary beads with a crucifix and sending
greetings to all the participants.
While organisers insisted the prayers Saturday were not directed against
any group, some participants cited fears of Islam among their reasons for
praying at the border.

Halina Kotarska, 65, travelled 145 miles from her home in Kwieciszewo,
central Poland, to express gratitude after her 29-year-old son Slawomir
survived a serious car wreck this year. She described it as a miracle which
she attributed to Marys intercession. She said she was also praying
for the survival of Christianity in Poland and Europe against what she
sees as an Islamic threat facing the West. Islam wants to destroy
Europe, she said. They want to turn us away from Christianity.

Poles also prayed in chapels at airports, seen as gateways to the country,
while Polish soldiers stationed in Afghanistan prayed at Bagram Airfield
there, the broadcaster TVN reported. A leading Polish expert on xenophobia
and extremism, Rafa? Pankowski, saw the prayers as a problematic expression
of Islamophobia coming at a time of rising anti-Muslim sentiment in Poland,
a phenomenon occurring even though the countrys Muslim population is tiny.
The whole concept of doing it on the borders reinforces the ethno-religious,
xenophobic model of national identity, said Pankowski, who heads the Never
Again association in Warsaw.

At the Polish-Czech border near the town of Szklarska Poreba, hundreds
of pilgrims arrived in buses and cars to pray at the Karkonosze mountain
range. The procession, which included young and old and families pushing
children in strollers, was made up of pilgrims who held rosaries and prayed
to the Virgin Mary, braving the cold and rain. Its a really serious thing
for us, said Basia Sibinska, who travelled with her daughter Kasia from
Kalisz in central Poland. Rosaries to the Border means that we want to
pray for our country. That was a main motive for us to come here. We want
to pray for peace, we want to pray for our safety. Of course, everyone
comes here with a different motivation. But the most important thing is
to create something like a circle of a prayer alongside the entire border,
intense and passionate.

In the northern city of Gdansk, people prayed on a beach lapped by waves
as seagulls flew above. Krzysztof Januszewski, 45, said that he worries
Christian Europe is being threatened by Islamic extremists and by a loss
of faith in Christian societies. In the past, there were raids by
sultans and Turks and people of other faiths against us Christians, said
Januszewski, a mechanic who travelled 220 miles to Gdansk from Czerwi?sk
nad Wis??. Today Islam is flooding us and we are afraid of this too,
he added. We are afraid of terrorist threats and we are afraid of people
departing from the faith.

The Eucharistic miracle of Sokolka: The host is tissue
from heart of a dying manLaboratory analyses confirm that the structure of the cardiac muscle
fibers and the structure of the bread are intertwined in a way impossible
to reproduce by human means.

Every day, on the altars of Catholic churches around the world, the
greatest miracle possible takes place: the transformation of bread and
wine into the true Body and Blood of Christ. Nonetheless, when we
receive Communion, we can only touch its true nature with our faith, because
our senses only perceive bread and wine, physically unaltered by the consecration.

What are the implications, then, of the Eucharistic event in Sokolka,
Poland?

It took place on Sunday, October 12, 2008, two weeks after the beatification
of Servant of God Fr. Michael Sopocko. During the Holy Mass celebrated
at the parish church of St. Anthony in Sokolka, at 8:30 a.m., a consecrated
host fell from the hands of one of the priests during the distribution
of Communion, next to the altar. The priest interrupted the distribution
of Communion and picked up the host, and, in accordance with liturgical
norms, placed it in a small container of waterin this case, one found
in some churches beside the tabernacle, where the priest may wash his fingers
after distributing Communion. The host was expected to dissolve in the
water, which would later be disposed of properly.

Sister Julia Dubowska, of the Congregation of the Eucharistic Sisters,
was the parish sacristan. At the end of the Mass, at the request of the
pastor, Fr. Stanislaw Gniedziejko, she poured the water and the host into
another container. Knowing that the consecrated host would take some time
to dissolve, she placed the new container in the safe located in the parish
sacristy. Only she and the pastor had the keys to the safe.

A week later, on October 19, Mission Sunday, when the pastor asked her
about the condition of the host, Sister Julia went to the safe. When she
opened the door, she noticed a delicate aroma of unleavened bread. When
she opened the container, she saw, in the middle of the hostwhich was
still largely intacta curved, bright red stain, like a blood stain: a
living particle of a body. The water was untainted by the color. The sister
immediately informed the priest, who brought in the other priests at the
parish and the visiting missionary, Fr. Ryszard Gorowski. They were all
amazed and left speechless by what they saw. They kept a discreet
and prudent silence about the event, considering its importance; this was
a consecrated host which, by the power of the words of Christ at the Last
Supper, was truly His Body. From a human point of view, it was difficult
at that point to define if the altered form of the remainder of the host
was the result of an organic growth, a chemical reaction, or some other
cause. They immediately notified the metropolitan archbishop of Bialystok,
Edward Ozorowski, who went to Sokolka with the chancellor of the Curia
and other diocesan officials. They were all deeply moved by what they saw.
The archbishop ordered that the host be protected while they waited to
see what would happen.

On October 29, the container with the host was transferred to the Divine
Mercy Chapel in the rectory, and placed in the tabernacle. The next day,
by decision of the archbishop, the stained host was taken out of the water
and placed on a small corporal, which was then put back in the tabernacle.
The host was kept this way for three years, until it was solemnly brought
to the church on October 2, 2011. During the first year, it was kept secret.
During that time, the Church authorities reflected on what to do, since
they were dealing with a sign from God which needed to be interpreted.
By mid-January of 2009, the altered fragment of the host had dried out
naturally, and remained like a blood stain or clot; since then, its appearance
has not changed. That same month, the archbishop requested histopathological
studies be done on the host. On March 30, he created an ecclesial commission
to study the phenomenon.

A piece of the altered host was taken and analyzed independently by
two experts, Prof. Maria Sobaniec-Lotowska, MD, and Prof. Stanislaw Sulkowski,
MD, in order to ensure the credibility of the results. Both are histopathologists
at the Medical University of Bialystok. The studies were carried out at
the universitys Department of Pathomorphology. The specialists work was
governed by the scientific norms and obligations for analyzing any scientific
problem in accordance with the directives of the Scientific Ethics Committee
of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The studies were exhaustively described
and photographed. The complete documentation was given to the Metropolitan
Curia of Bialystok.

When the samples were taken for analysis, the undissolved part of the
consecrated host had become embedded in the cloth. However, the red blood
clot was as clear as ever. This transformed part of the host was dry and
fragile, inextricably interwoven with the rest of the fragment, which had
kept the form of bread. The sample that was taken was large enough to carry
out all the necessary studies. The results of both independent studies
were in perfect agreement. They concluded that the structure of the transformed
fragment of the host is identical to the myocardial (heart) tissue of a
living person who is nearing death. The structure of the heart muscle fibers
is deeply intertwined with that of the bread, in a way impossible to achieve
with human means, according to the declaration of Prof. Maria Sobaniec-Lotowska.

The studies proved that no foreign substance was added to the consecrated
host; rather, part of the host took the form of heart muscle of a person
near death. This kind of phenomenon is inexplicable by the natural sciences.
At the same time, the Church teaches us that the consecrated host becomes
the Body of Christ, by the power of His own words at the Last Supper, repeated
by priests during the consecration of the Mass.

The results of the histopathological studies, dated January 21, 2009,
were included in the dossier given to the Metropolitan Curia of Bialystok.
In its official communiqué, the Metropolitan Curia of Bialystok
stated: The Sokolka event is not opposed to the faith of the Church;
rather, it confirms it. The Church professes that, after the words of consecration,
by the power of the Holy Spirit, the bread is transformed into the Body
of Christ, and the wine into His Blood. Additionally, this is an invitation
for all ministers of the Eucharist to distribute the Body of the Lord with
faith and care, and for the faithful to receive Him with adoration.

India third among countries that faced most natural
disasters: GuterresClimate change was among the seven global threats that he listed needing
immediate global action.
September 19, 2017, 4:24 PM
United
Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres attends a bell-ringing ceremony
at UN headquarters in New York, Sept. 15, 2017. (IANS)

India ranked third among the countries that have faced the most natural
disasters in the last half century, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres
said on Tuesday pleading for unwavering international action on climate
change. In his first speech to the annual high-level meeting of the General
Assembly, he said, "It is high time to get off the path of suicidal emissions.
We know enough today to act." "I urge governments to implement the historic
Paris Agreement with ever greater ambition," he said.

United States President Donald Trump has declared that his country is
pulling out of the Paris agreement on combating climate change. Pointedly,
Guterres said, "The United States, followed by China, India, the Philippines
and Indonesia, have experienced the most disasters since 1995 - more than
1,600, or once every five days." Climate change was among the seven global
threats that he listed needing immediate global action. International terrorism
is taking a great toll on the world, he said and called for intensifying
the global efforts against terrorism and radicalisation.

"Stronger international cooperation remains crucial," he said. "Together,
we need to make full use of UN instruments, and expand our efforts to support
survivors. But he added, "Experience has also shown that harsh crackdowns
and heavy-handed approaches are counterproductive." Foremost among the
seven perils he listed is the nuclear threat emanating from North Korea.
"Global anxieties about nuclear weapons are at the highest level since
the end of the Cold War," Guterres warned. "The fear is not abstract. Millions
of people live under a shadow of dread cast by the provocative nuclear
and missile tests of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea."

He appealed to the Security council to act unitedly to meet the threat
and to all countries to comply with its resolution imposing sanctions.
"Only that unity can lead to the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula
and -- as the resolution recognises -- create an opportunity for diplomatic
engagement to resolve the crisis," he said while condemning Pyongyang's
nuclear and missile tests. "The dark side of innovation" is another global
peril, he said, adding "it has moved from the frontier to the front door."
"Cyber war is becoming less and less a hidden reality -- and more and more
able to disrupt relations among States and destroy some of the structures
and systems of modern life," he said. Genetic engineering has also raised
ethical questions that have not been resolved, he said.

The humanitarian crisis from unresolved conflicts and violations of
international law that is manifested in the flow of refugees is another
peril the world faces, he said. He mentioned the Rohingya crisis, and said,
"The authorities in Myanmar must end the military operations, and allow
unhindered humanitarian access. They must also address the grievances of
the Rohingya."

The other threats are the growing inequality among nations and within
nations, and human migration. Emphasising the need for global unity to
meet the great perils facing humanity, Guterres said, "We come from different
corners of the world. Our cultures, religions, traditions vary widely --
and wonderfully. At times, there are competing interests among us. At others,
there is even open conflict." "That is exactly why we need the United Nations,
he said. "That is why multilateralism is more important than ever."

IANS

Archaeologists may have discovered the place where
Jesus performed the miracle of the swine

A marble slab was uncovered with an inscription in Hebrew that might
indicate the exact location of the event.

The Gospel of Mark recalls the arrival of Jesus to the northeastern
region of the Sea of Galilee, the Kineret:
They reached the territory of the Gerasenes on the other side of the
lake, and when he disembarked, a man with an unclean spirit at once came
out from the tombs towards him. The man lived in the tombs and no one could
secure him any more, even with a chain, because he had often been secured
with fetters and chains but had snapped the chains and broke the fetters,
and no one had the strength to control him. All night and all day, among
the tombs and in the mountains, he would howl and gash himself with stones.
Catching sight of Jesus from a distance, he ran up and fell at his feet
and shouted at the top of his voice, What do you want with me, Jesus,
son of the Most High God? In Gods name do not torture me! For Jesus had
been saying to him, Come out of the man, unclean spirit. Then he asked,
What is your name? He answered, My name is Legion, for there are many
of us. And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the district.
Now on the mountainside there was a great herd of pigs feeding, and the
unclean spirits begged him, Send us to the pigs, let us go into them.
So he gave them leave. With that, the unclean spirits came out and went
into the pigs, and the herd of about two thousand pigs charged down the
cliff into the lake, and there they were drowned.
Recently, a group of archaeologists discovered a marble slab in the
shores of the Kineret, with an inscription in Hebrew that might indicate
the exact location of this event, known as the miracle of the swine.
According to the team, it might have occurred in Kursi, a town located
in the land of the Gadarenes (or Gerasenes), in the southern part of the
Golan Heights.
The presence of a Hebrew settlement near the eastern shore of the
Sea of ??Galilee is a very strange phenomenon, exhlaind Haim Cohen, a
researcher at Haifa University. In fact, the settlement was only discovered
because of a drop in water levels that allowed researchers to find a pier
normally under water and, next to it, the Kursi settlement. The the 1,500-year-old
slab was found inside a building that would have functioned as a synagogue.
The marble slab would shed light on the issue. Being 1.40 meters by
70 centimeters, on its surface there is a Hebrew inscription in which the
experts were able to identify the words amen and marmaria, which might
translate either Mary, marble or rabbi. As read in Primeros Cristianos
and Israel En Línea, according to Professor Mijal Artzi, the full
text is composed of eight lines; usually not so many words in Hebrew letters
are carved in stone. The assumption is that the person to whom the inscription
was dedicated had an enormous influence on the local population.

Turin Shroud stained with blood of torture victim,
new research claimsResearchers say the Shroud contains nanoparticles of blood that
are typical of someone who has experienced violent trauma

The Shroud of Turin is stained with the blood of a torture victim, scientists
have claimed.
Researchers in Italy said the linen cloth, which is believed to have
been wrapped around Christs body after he was crucified, contains nanoparticles
of blood that are typical of someone who has experienced violent trauma.
Elvio Carlino, a researcher at the Institute of Crystallography in
Bari, Italy says the particles suggest great suffering.
Professor Giulio Fanti of the University of Padua added that the particles
have a peculiar structure, size and distribution and the blood contains
high levels of creatinine and ferritin, typically found in patients who
have suffered traumas such as torture.
Hence, the presence of these biological nanoparticles found during
our experiments point to a violent death for the man wrapped in the Turin
Shroud, Professor Fanti said.
The particles cannot be artefacts made over the centuries on the fabric
of the Shroud, he added.
The findings appear in an article titled New Biological Evidence from
Atomic Resolution Studies on the Turin Shroud, published in American scientific
journal PlosOne.
The researchers used methods recently developed in the field of electron
microscopy to analyse the Shroud.
Carlino said this was the first study of the nanoscale properties
of a pristine fibre taken from the Turin Shroud.

Catholic college in Kansas wipes yoga from names
of classes  its a Hindu thingAn online petition posted by students calls on Benedictine President
Stephen D. Minnis to bring back yoga! So far, it has received 105 online
signatures. The petition has also drawn the support of Rajan Zed, a well-known
Hindu cleric in Nevada, who urged the college to relook into their reported
yoga decision.

Complaints, Johnson said, began to come in from alumni, students, faculty
and some administrators who argued that as a Hindu practice, yoga was not
in keeping with Catholic-based education. Others, Johnson said, argued
that the name yoga should no longer be used because in teaching just the
exercise aspects of yoga  as opposed to both its physical and spiritual
aspects  Benedictine wasnt teaching true yoga. Thus it should not use
the Hindu name.
The colleges school newspaper, The Circuit, first reported on the
move April 5 and noted that concern also was raised by Archbishop Joseph
F. Naumann of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, and Abbot James
Albers of St. Benedicts Abbey in Atchison.

The paper quoted college President Minnis.
Yoga as created has some potential for eastern mysticism which has
caused concern among members of the Catholic Church, Minnis told the college
paper. Archbishop Naumann has expressed his concerns and the issues surrounding
that. We asked ourselves if there was a way to bring those yoga benefits
to our students and faculty without the possible effects of eastern mysticism.
Contacted by The Star, the archdiocese sent the following statement
from its chancellor, the Rev. John Riley.
Many people do not realize that yoga is intended to be more than
a series of exercises coupled with deliberative breathing and meditation,
Riley said in an emailed statement. It is a mind and body practice developed
under Hinduism, the goal of which is spiritual purification that will lead
to a higher level of understanding and eventually union with the divine.
Although the Catholic Church teaches that much good can be found in
other religions, Catholics believe it is only brought to fullness in Christ.
It is for these reasons that Catholics are alerted to the dangers of
the practice of yoga and are encouraged to look for other exercise alternatives
that do not incorporate a spiritual dimension.
Riley said if Catholics want exercises that include a spiritual dimension,
they should consider Pietra Fitness, a set of exercises that includes Christian
prayer and meditation.
Benedictine yoga instructor Julie Romano, a yoga practitioner for 10
years, questioned the decision.
I have a moral objection to taking something that people spent thousands
of years working on and calling it something else, she told the school
paper. I dont see a conflict in yoga and Catholicism and I dont see
why we should call it something else to appease others.
Eric Adler

Mendoza, Argentina, Apr 21, 2017 / 12:08 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Holy
Thursday Father Alejandro Béjar, a priest of the Archdiocese of
Mendoza, narrowly escaped being killed by a train. He attributes his survival
to consecrated Hosts he was transporting on his way to visit the sick.

The April 13 incident took place at a railroad crossing in San Roque
as Fr. Béjar was on his way to visit several sick persons, in addition
to saying three Masses in the communities under his care.
Fr. Béjar, 50, told CNA that he crossed the railroad tracks
that day for lack of a signal and got trapped. He explained he did not
see the rails because of some bushes, and that there was no railroad crossing
barrier.
Trapped on the tracks he could hear the train's horn, and saw the train
appear, coming around a curve.

Within seconds, he tried moving his car. He was unable to, so he quickly
unfastened his seat belt and ran from the car.
His Ford Escort was struck, and dragged some 80 feet by the train,
which was unable to brake in time. The vehicle was destroyed but the priest
could not get over his astonishment that the bag holding the consecrated
Hosts on the front passenger seat was undamaged and remained in place.

That's strange because in the back of the car there was a bag of fine
flour I was taking for the community where I was going to celebrate Mass.
That bag opened up and (the flour) spread all over, but the bag (with the
Hosts) didn't even move, he said.

Fr. Béjar said he was ashamed he did not take with him the consecrated
Hosts when he abandoned the vehicle, but he thanked God for saving him
from the onslaught of the train.
I thank God because I was calm and didn't despair. It was a sign from
God that he was present at that moment and helped me have those reflexes
to stay calm and not give up hope, he said.
The priest was unable to get the first Mass on his schedule for that
day.
Fr. Béjar noted that eight years ago two women died in similar
circumstances, and so he hopes the authorities will clean up the area from
bushes and put up appropriate railroad crossing signage.

Beirut Bishop Kourie says the two bishops abducted
in Syria in 2013 are still aliveFady
Noun

The Lebanese Syriac Orthodox bishop made the claim during the celebrations
for the 47th anniversary of Virgin's apparitions. The portraits of the
two bishops were displayed inside the church and taken in procession. The
prelate appealed to the Lebanese government to make the case a "national
cause".

Beirut (AsiaNews)  The two bishops of Aleppo abducted in 2013 in Syria
are still alive, said Mgr Daniel Kourie, Syriac Orthodox bishop of Beirut,
who spoke on Saturday at the ceremony marking the 47th anniversary of the
Virgin Mary's apparitions over the dome of the cathedral of Saints Peter
and Paul in Moussaitbeh, near Beirut.

The commemoration of these apparitions, which this Church invariably
commemorates on the first Sunday after Easter, coincided this year with
the 4th anniversary of the abduction in Syria (22 April 2013) of the Syriac
Orthodox and Greek Orthodox bishops of Aleppo, Youhanna Ibrahim and Boulos
Yazigi, whose fate remains unknown. The portraits of the two bishops were
displayed inside the cathedral and carried during the torchlight procession
that marked the anniversary of the apparitions.

During the ceremony for the dual anniversary, Bishop Daniel Kourie,
chairman of the commission charged with the affair, tried to be reassuring.
As far as he knew "the two bishops are still alive. [. . .] Those who believe
otherwise must give us evidence for their claim." The prelate added that
the commission has knocked on every possible door, in Lebanon and Syria,
doing their best, to find the two bishops.

Bishop Kourie called on Lebanese authorities to make this case a national
cause given its impact on interfaith coexistence and dialogue. He slammed
"religious and ethnic cleansing in Syria, Iraq and Egypt" and the states
that support it by providing men, weapons and money.

The apparitions of the Virgin at Moussaitbeh, a mixed district of Beirut
with a substantial Syriac community, are similar to those that occurred
in Zeitoun (1968). The Syriac Orthodox Church considers them authentic
and solemnly recognised them in a patriarchal decree. Unfortunately, they
have not received the attention they deserve from the other Eastern Churches
in Lebanon, all of which had turned inward at the time of the events, even
though these events resonated as a warning and an appeal for openness and
unity, in the face of the initial rise of the Islamist peril.

Bishops, activists and ordinary people complain about incidents of
violence and intimidation across the country. Despite constitutional guarantees,
the Christian minority is being persecuted. The threat on Palm Sunday:
"If you want to pray, you must have official permission."

New Delhi (AsiaNews) - Incidents of violence, intimidation and harassment
against Christians in India, a discriminated minority oppressed by the
majority Hindus. Even on Palm Sunday and Holy Week before Easter. As reflected
in the stories of what happened throughout the national territory, pastors
and believers arrested, prayer meetings suppressed, masses interrupted,
arrests on false accusations of proselytism, tribals forced to "return
home", that is to Hinduism. Bishops, activists and ordinary people speak
to AsiaNews pointing out that India is a secular and democratic country
only on paper (constitutional), and over the years has become increasingly
prey to the Hindu nationalists, led by the central government (BJP Bharatiya
Janata Party) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

On April 7, the radical nationalist youth brigade Hindu Yuva Vahini,
created in 2002 by Yogi Adityanath, the current chief minister of Uttar
Pradesh, raided a Dadhauli church in Maharajganj district (Uttar Pradesh),
and interrupted the church service. There were about 150 faithful in the
church at that time, including 10 American tourists. All Christians, including
the pastor Yuhanna Adam, were arrested by police on charges of forced conversions
to Christianity. Msgr. Thomas Thuruthimattam, bishop of Gorakhpur, complains:
"It was a real indirect attack on religious freedom. These indirect threats
are against the principles established in the Constitution, against people
who are represented in the Constitution itself. "

Witnesses say that the nationalists insulted, intimidated and provoked
Christians, although police established the falsity of the disputed charges.
The pastor Adam also reports that young people entered the church with
an excuse: "They arrived early in the morning, asking to visit the facility
for its historical value. How could we stop them? The church is open to
all and everyone is welcome at any time. Later, as soon as the Mass began,
the group with saffron bandanas [typical of nationalists headgear, ed]
came back with police. The police immediately blocked the function and
asked everyone to leave the building. "

Sajan K George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians
(GCIC), criticizes the behavior of the police: India is a Secular Democratic
Republic with Constitutional Guarantees, no illegalities were being done
at the Church event, yet the police stopped Worship services under the
baseless charges of conversion activities. GCIC fears the increasing insecurity
and targeting of the vulnerable Christian minority.

The Christian leaders also condemned the shameful act of targeting
the tourists for attending worship is denounced and condemned by GCIC.
Moreover, it repeats the same old stereotype, of missionaries being out
to convert the gullible masses.It is a very common sight to see western
tourists in saffron robes attend all hues of Hindu festivals in India,
very often they are also seen distributing copies of Hindu texts and books
at various places, but the police neither stop them or arrest them, But
when the western tourists attend Worship, they are detained and harassed.
This is a grave human right violation.

Since last month in Jharkhand radicals of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh (RSS) have "brought home to the Hindu family" 53 tribal families,
including the last seven in early April. The campaign of tribal conversion
will last throughout the month. Sajan K George denounces "the tribal Hindus
have never been Hindu, therefore, an attempt to bring them back to the
Hindu fold is just a way to harass them." Then he poses a technical question:
"To what caste they would like to include them, since the tribals are not
Hindus?".

On April 8 in Bangalore, Karnataka, a Christian event scheduled for
the next day was canceled at the last moment. The authorities withdrew
permission to carry out the event, which had more than 1,000 people registered
who were supposed to attend a conference of two American evangelical pastors.
The event was canceled after Girish Bhardwaj, radical Hindus, filed a complaint
with the Immigration Service against the hypothetical attempt to convert
by the two foreigners holding a visa that allowed them only to participate
in the rally , and not to speak in public. The GCIC president expresses
a strong condemnation of the incident and asked the Prime Minister of India
to "invite the state governments to ensure the safety of Christians during
Holy Week."

Indeed, preparations for Easter have also been marred in India, as well
as the attacks against Coptic churches in Egypt. On Palm Sunday many episodes
of intolerance occurred across the territory. In Madhya Pradesh, in the
village of Sitabedi, members of the RSS - accompanied by police - have
interrupted the celebrations and arrested the pastors Amar Singh Solanki,
Kishore Solanki Barela and Prabhakar, their wives and other Christians
on charges of forced conversions . The same charges have been laid against
pastor Yashpal, whilst celebrating mass in Kaithal, Haryana. In the village
of Jahanpur, in Uttar Pradesh, other Hindu extremists beat Pastor Paul
Krishna, the Believer's Church, and dragged him to the police station.
The same fate has befallen the pastor Saji Mathew of the Church of God
in Sri Ganganagar, Rajasthan, who was arrested along with seven other Christians.
Finally Taluka in Palani, Tamil Nadu, some administration officials privately
broke into the pastor Gunasekarans residence while he was leading prayer.
The authorities took photographs and filmed the people attending the function.
They have also warned that if Christians want to pray in the future, they
will have to obtain an official permit.

On October 20th, 2016, one of the most exciting events in centuries
took place: the opening of the marble slab guarding the place tradition
claims was the tomb of Jesus, inside the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher
in Jerusalem.
Underneath that slab there was a second slab, also of gray marble,
containing a slit along its side and bearing a Lorraine Cross. Most likely,
this is from the time of the Crusades, from the beginning of the 12th century.
Once the second slab was removed, the surprises began, according to
testimonies gathered from different sources. Right below this slab, a fundamental
piece of the site was discovered: an ordinary stone bench excavated in
the rock that is directly connected with the vertical wall, also excavated
in the rock behind it.
The chronicles of medieval travelers such as Félix Faber (1480),
who saw the edicule without the actual covering marbles, testify that the
bank and wall formed a single piece of stone. This corresponds to the northern
wall of the small room: the place traditionally venerated as Jesus tomb.
The second surprise revealed the south wall of this room corresponded
to a second vertical wall, also made out of ordinary rock, about two meters
high. In sum, the Edicule of the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher contains
a site consisting of two stone walls (north and south) and a bank (to the
north side)  all dug out of the rock. This setup corresponds to a sepulchral
chamber one could only gain access by going down, as it was below the
level of the outer land. The original stone floor of the tomb, still to
be discovered, is to be found under the present marble pavement.
The archaeological elements described agree with the documentary data
of the Gospels, as in Matthew 27, Mark 15-16, Luke 24, and John 19-20.
That is why it is legitimate to suppose that this is in fact the tomb of
Jesus.
Relatively close to the place in which Jesus was crucified, Joseph
of Arimathea owned a tomb, which had not yet been used by anyone. (Jewish
burial customs at the time usually dictated quick burial in a shallow grave
covered with stones for the poor, with the wealthy purchasing family tombs,
or sepulchers, where bodies would be laid in niches carved out of the walls.
There were also stone benches for the preparation of the body or for visitors
to the family tomb.) This tomb was to be closed with a large stone that
had to be rolled over in order to cover the entrance, according to the
Gospels. This kind of closing is precisely the one that was used for sepulchral
chambers, commonly carved in the rock, as the one discovered under the
Edicules marble slab. One could only walk in by slightly descending to
gain access to the place in which the corpse was deposited: that is to
say, the aforementioned stone bench. The Gospels claim that Mary Magdalene
bent down to look into the tomb.
The stone bank is also mentioned in the gospels of Mark and John. In
Mark 16:5, it is said that the women entered the tomb and found a young
man seated in a white garment. Evidently, one could only sit on such marble
bench, and not in a niche. John 20:12 one speaks of two angels dressed
in white, sitting in the room [that is, again, the area of the bench] where
the body of Jesus had been placed.
When Jesus was buried, on a Friday, right before the sunset, they did
not place the body in a niche but rather on the stone bench, as mentioned
in the Gospels. The reason for this decision is that Jesus had died after
considerable physical aggression, and his body was in an unfortunate state,
and needed proper preparation, which could not be provided at the moment,
as the Sabbath rest was about to begin. It was customary among the Jews
of the time to wash and anoint with aromatic oils the bodies of the deceased
before burying them. But as Jesus had to be buried in a hurry, his body
was left on the stone bench, covered hastily with a shroud.
Even if faith in the Resurrection might not lean on logical demonstrations,
it doesnt imply a leap into an irrational vacuum either. Research shows
archaeological data and the Gospels agree. The archaeological facts are
not to be understood as demonstrations that ground (or not) what is a matter
of faith, but they indeed stimulate reasonableness, based on verisimilitude.
The canonical gospels are indeed documents belonging to the first centuries
of Christianity, and can be read like any other ancient historical document.
From them, a religious revolution sprang out: the one that began on a bench
dug in the rock, inside a sepulcher, in Jerusalem, two thousand years ago.

The 30th Annual Way of The Cross by The Catholic Secular
Forum (CSF)Sacred Heart Church 10.30 am to St. Charles Convent 3.30 pm

Join Thousands in the ICAN - CSF Walk to Pray for PersecutorCSFs Christian
Response to Attacks in India & Abroad.Thousands to Fast, Suffer
& Pray at Catholic Forums Good Friday Walk
Christians publicly forgive attackers, pray for the victims & the
country

Will you be one among the walking pilgrims ? Or will you worship Jesus
in the comforts of the church ?

Thousands of Christians will undertake an exhausting walk, in a public
gesture of forgiving those responsible for the attacks on Christians, churches
and the clergy, which has risen sharply over the past few months. " The
intention is to offer a Christian response which is in keeping with what
Jesus did on the first Good Friday, when he said, 'Father forgive them
for they know not what they do' about his persecutors. We want to tell
India and the world that we forgive those who target us, our clergy, institution
and properties; but are grieved and cry out that we need to be treated
as equal citizens and the law should take its course ", said Joseph Dias,
general secretary of the Catholic Secular Forum (CSF), the activist community
NGO that organized the pilgrimage.

Starting out from Sacred Heart Church in Santacruz West, in suburban
Mumbai, the pilgrims will brave the scorching heat, most of them fasting
and praying until the religious service called the Stations of the Cross
concludes at around 3 pm in the evening. Along the way at various stops
over the almost 8 Km route, activists dramatized incidents, believed to
have happened when Jesus was killed over 2000 year ago. The serpentine
procession will pass through the lanes of Mumbais Khar, Santacruz, Vakola
and Kalina with the crucifixion scenes being enacted (as in the Philippines)
which is a tearful finale. Many of the pilgrims go bare feet at the end
of a fulfilling spiritual experience of 40 days of prayer, fasting and
repentance.

The 'Way of the Cross' devotion or Walk with Jesus relating the suffering
of Christ to modern-day living is in its 30th year and draws Christians
from all over, with even children, women, priests and nuns joining in to
partake in portrayal of the torture and killing of Jesus, enacted through
a musical played out on the streets. The faithful mourned for the intention
of the day  Christians denied freedom of faith and religious liberty.

Speaking on the theme, Joseph Dias, who started this tradition in India
29 years ago, which has not found a parallel in the country said, " There
seems to be a sinister plan to the attacks and the powers behind them could
range from political and economic to the persecution being part of an international
design to target Christians as is happening in the Gulf or African countries.
In the country, the attacks are in the background of new governments both
at the centre and states, who are responsible for law and order. Among
the comity of nations, the image assiduously cultivated by the prime minister
is taking a hit, as he is seen unwilling to reign in those attacking the
community.

Indian Christians do not see these as isolated incidents, especially
given the increase in frequency and the fact that they are backed by statements
from prominent fundamentalists or even elected public representatives.
We are alarmed and afraid at the attempt to demonize Christians and have
the community's basic human rights violated. We are seen as soft-targets
as we do not retaliate, as commanded by our faith and this makes the government
all the more duty-bound to ensure that our rights guaranteed are not trampled
upon ".

According to The CSF press release, " the government apathy towards
Indian Christians is taking its toll, even as communal elements target
the community. Jesus told us to pray for our persecutors and this is a
public display of our hurt sentiments and a cry for justice. There can
be no development without peace, justice or communal harmony ". Forms of
discrimination faced by the community mentioned were those of police action,
political alienation, bureaucratic victimization, anti-conversion laws,
targeted violence, economic deprivation, social boycott, etc.The 30th Annual
Way of The Cross by The Catholic Secular Forum (CSF)

Some of The 15 Stations of the Cross will be enacted are  the arrest
of Jesus, Jesus being sentenced by Pontius Pilate, the falls of Jesus,
Jesus meeting the women of Jerusalem, his mother and disciples at the cross,
Veronica wiping the face of Jesus This, the activists feel is a dignified
Christian way of protesting against the subtle and not so subtle attacks
on the community.

Thousands of passer-byes will witness the Calvary (place where Jesus
was crucified) story, with biblical characters acting out the arrest and
the last few hours before Jesus death. Similar enactments are known to
happen in the Philippines and Latin America, with a couple of Christians
actually being nailed to a cross, to experience in a small way Jesus' suffering.

Joseph Dias added that " initially it started since many non-Christians
believed that Good Friday was a feast, rather than a day of mourning. He
pointed out that while fundamentalists of various hues and colours are
persecuting Christians, the inaction and official neglect by the government
is appalling. As a micro minority, who are not aggressive, politically
influential and spread out; the governments of the day takes us for granted.
This therefore also signals the heralding of Christians as vociferous and
politically active citizens.

The pilgrims will stop still for a special prayer at 3 pm, believed
to be the time, when Jesus died or the moment of grace to pray for the
intentions and the theme. They now look forward to a new hope, that the
resurrection of Jesus from the dead on Easter Sunday brings, which will
also be enacted, since Christians believe that the crucifixion in not the
end.

The Republic of Congo was recently consecrated to the
Virgin MaryThe current Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, recently
visited the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville). This trip ended with the act
of consecration of the country to the Virgin Mary, during a Mass celebrated
on Saturday, February 4, 2017.

Three thousand faithful were present at the National Basilica of St
Anne of Brazzaville. The civil, diplomatic and military authorities also
attended the ceremony. The Mass was concelebrated by the Apostolic Nuncio,
Bishop Francisco Escalante Molina, the bishops of the country and 150 priests.
The cardinal received warm applause for his homily. He spoke of Christs
love, which the Congo needs. A love that is in fact "capable of resisting
the temptation of indifference and considering the good of others as its
own good."

In the same way, the cardinal affirmed that "the good Christian is above
all the one who commits himself every day to walking with God and living
in harmony with Him, doing good and fleeing evil."

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb,
Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now, and at the hour
of death.
Amen.

Jesuit Manuel Carreia: "Islam, the Worst Plague the
Human Race Has EverSeen"(Madrid) the famous astrophysicist and Jesuit, Father Manuel Carreira,
has said "Islam, the worst plague that the human race has ever seen."

In an interview Carreira had indirectly responded to a discussion
on West Germany and said that one could not plausibly claim that "Islam
is compatible with the rights of a European nation".

Astrophysicist and Jesuit

The Spaniard Manuel Maria Carreira Verez SJ became famous mainly as
an astrophysicist, but also as a philosopher and theologian. Since 1974
he is a member of the Vatican Specula, was an employee at numerous NASA
projects in the United States and taught more than 30 years at various
universities, including the John Carroll University in the US and the Pontifical
University of Comillas in Spain.

In an interview with El Español he addressed some current issues,
including the migration crisis, the relationship between the West and Islam,
and the relationship between the state and Church.

The State must preserve Christian heritage, he does not want to jeopardize
its existence

"The state need not impose any specific religious behavior," but it
has to be taken into account, that the Western countries are based on Christian
ethics, because this has formed these States and made them what they are
and what is necessary to defend.

"The Catholicity is a central key element in the development of the
state", which applies to all of Western Europe. Therefore, the European
countries could not accept the abolition of Christianity without putting
their very existence at risk.

There is growing secularization, and this was "up to a certain point,
even desirable, because religion must not be a political element." But
the state has the task and duty to protect its Christian heritage as part
of the common good.

Carreira mainly sees a threat to Western countries, and that is above
all Islam. "I would say that Islam is the worst plague that humanity
has seen in the past 2000 years.". Islam is "completely unable" to develop,
respect for human dignity.

For Muslims it is therefore "impossible to respect human rights and
the Western tradition".

A Muslim in Europe "denies either this respect, then is an internal
threat to Europe, or he accepts European thought, which means he is an
unbeliever and is dead according to Islamic understanding." Either way,
"there is no positive contribution by Islam to a modern society that is
respectful of the fundamental rights of every human being," said Carreira.

Idea of ??the multicultural state "an intellectual blunder"

For this reason, the astrophysicist and Jesuit sees in the idea of ??a
multicultural state an "intellectual blunder". It lacks any "reasonable
relation to reality". Father Carreira said: "It seems to me that one can
not plausibly claim that Islam is compatible with the rights of a European
nation."

"Islam," said the Jesuit, "was created as decaffeinated Christianity
because they simply have obscured what they did not understand in Christianity:
one no longer talked about the Trinity, nor the incarnation of God for
the simple reason that they had not understood it. "Therefore, Islam is
a 7th - 9th Century developing form of "a minimalist distorted Christianity"
with its "own theology," which is of a "very simple thinking."

Text: Giuseppe Nardi

Jailed Christians forced to convert to Islam, a disgrace
on the justice system says Pakistani ChurchJ
Kamran Chaudhry

The accused are asked to change religion in exchange for their release.
The latest case sparks protest among Christians. Girls are converted by
force to marry Muslims whilst Christians men who marry Muslim are beaten
and their homes torched. Even Asia Bibi was offered to convert to Islam.

Lahore (AsiaNews)  Religious leaders and Christian activists are calling
for action against a prosecutor who confessed to pushing Christian prisoners
to give up their faith to embrace Islam.
This comes after Pakistani media reported that Deputy District Public
Prosecutor Syed Anees Shah told 42 Christian prisoners before an anti-terrorism
court in Lahore, Punjab, that he could guarantee their acquittal if they
converted to Islam.
Contacted by a British newspaper, Shah first denied the allegation
then conceded that he had offered them a choice.
The Christians involved in the case are all from Youhanabad, Lahore.
They were arrested in connection with the lynching of two suspected Muslim
terrorists shortly after the Taliban attacked two churches on 15 March
2015.
It is really bad to lead people astray, said Rev Arshad Ashknaz of
Christ Church, from one of the churches attacked in Youhanabad, speaking
to AsiaNews. This, he added, will give a bad image to the court and
the whole legal fraternity.
In his view, The public prosecutor can be sued for this prejudiced
action. We plan to meet him soon. The government should reject this. Fear
of death can force anyone to change religion.
This has not happened in isolation. Forced conversions are a hot topic
in the country. Pakistani human rights organisations note that each year
about a thousand Hindu and Christian women are forced to convert to marry
Muslim men.
According to the latest Report on religious minorities in Pakistan
by the National Commission for Justice and Peace of the Catholic Bishops'
Conference of Pakistan, five Christians converted to Islam in 2014, including
three teenager girls who were abducted and forced into marriage.
Against the backdrop, Sindh last year became the first Pakistani province
to pass a law against forced religious conversions. However, the provincial
government was forced to go back on its decision to protect minorities
after opposition from some religious scholars.
For Rev Ashknaz, There is no religious freedom. The whole system supports
Christian women who marry their Muslim spouses, but it is a torment for
Christian men who do the same. Their families suffer and their houses are
burnt.
According to Nadeem Anthony, a Christian lawyer, Asia Bibi, the Christian
mother on death row for the past seven years charged with blaspheming the
Prophet Mohammad, was made a similar offer.
However, My faith is alive and I will never convert, she told him
when they met at the Sheikhupura District Jail in 2010.
This is a common practice. Even my Muslim friends asked me to do the
same. Such impositions are expected in cases of religious persecution,
said the lawyer, who is also a human rights activist.

Pope Francis' latest prayer video spotlights Christian
persecution

Vatican City, Mar 2, 2017 / 11:47 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In his prayer
video for March, Pope Francis prays for persecuted Christians, asking for
the prayers and aid of the whole Church toward those mistreated on the
basis of their beliefs.

How many people are being persecuted because of their faith, forced
to abandon their homes, their places of worship, their lands, their loved
ones! the Pope says in the video.

Released March 2, the video shows people from different countries being
photographed as if arrested, then holding up signs reading Protestant,
Catholic, and "Orthodox.

They are persecuted and killed because they are Christians, the Pope
says. Those who persecute them make no distinction between the religious
communities to which they belong.

The video continues with real footage of destroyed churches in the Middle
East, followed by clips of adults and children praying in a church, at
home, and at a school, and people packing up food at a food bank, as the
Pope asks: how many of you pray for persecuted Christians? Do it with
me, that they may be supported by the prayers and material help of all
the Churches and communities.

An initiative of the Jesuit-run global prayer network Apostleship of
Prayer, the Popes prayer videos are filmed in collaboration with the Vatican
Television Center and mark the first time the Roman Pontiffs monthly prayer
intentions have been featured on video.

The Apostleship of Prayer, which produces the monthly videos on the
Popes intentions, was founded by Jesuit seminarians in France in 1884
to encourage Christians to serve God and others through prayer, particularly
for the needs of the Church.

Since the late 1800s, the organization has received a monthly, universal
intention from the Pope. In 1929, an additional missionary intention was
added by the Holy Father, aimed at the faithful in particular.

Starting in January, rather than including a missionary intention, Pope
Francis has elected to have only one prepared prayer intention  the universal
intention featured in the prayer video  and will add a second intention
focused on an urgent or immediate need if one arises.

According to a report released in January, global persecution of Christians
has risen for the fourth year in a row and is on a rapid rise in Asia.

The advocacy group Open Doors UK warned in its annual report on Christian
persecution, released Jan. 12, that Persecution levels have been rising
rapidly across Asia and the Indian subcontinent, driven by extreme religious
nationalism which is often tacitly condoned, and sometimes actively encouraged,
by local and national governments.

Overall persecution of Christians has risen from last year, Open Doors
UK noted, stating that Christians are being killed for their faith in
more countries than before.

Christians living in these countries need the support of their family,
the body of Christ, to help them stand firm in their faith, they stated.

Archbishop Nassar described Syria as 'a huge disaster
zone' of 'ghost neighbourhoods and towns destroyed to the ground'The Marionite Archbishop of Damascus has written a pastoral letter
describing the challenges of daily life in war-torn Syria.

In a letter released on Ash Monday  the beginning of Lent in the Eastern
and Oriental Catholic Church  Archbishop Samir Nassar speaks of five of
the horrors experienced in the Syrian Civil War.
Entitled A Very Bitter Lent, the pastoral letter portrays the apocalyptic
scene that Syria has been reduced to.
It is a huge disaster zone of debris, carbonised buildings, burned
down houses, ghost neighbourhoods and towns destroyed to the ground, Archbishop
Nassar writes, More than twelve million Syrians, 50 per cent of the population,
are lacking a roof.

The letter goes on to describe shattered family life and the sacrifice
of childhoods.

The children are the most fragile, he says, They have paid a great
price for this merciless violence.
The centres of psychological support cannot overcome the number and
depth of wounds and psychic blocks. How do we restore the spirit of these
children destroyed by violence and barbaric scenes?
The archbishop adds that there has been a severe decline in parish
life, pointing to the departure of a third of clergy from the Church of
Damascus as a blow to the Christian minority in the country.
He goes on: The priests struggling to remain without any reassurances
consider negotiating their eventual departure. They only wait for humanitarian
agencies to arrive to assist broken families.
Finally, Archbishop Nassar writes that Syrians have lost all hope of
finding freedom through fighting and daily life is simply about survival.
Their daily combat is finding bread, water, gas and fuel, which are
harder and harder to find. Electrical shortages have become more frequent
and lengthy. These darken nights and reduce any social life.
The search for lost brotherrs, parents and friends is a very discrete,
anxious and hopeful undertaking.
The letter concludes with a request from the archbishop for Syrians
to recommit themselves to the Church and to find rest in Christ during
this bitter Lent of 2017.
Archbishop Nassars letter in full:

A Very Bitter Lent

1) An Apocalyptic Scene
In six years of war the face of Syria has changed quite a lot. It is
a huge disaster zone of debris, carbonised buildings, burnt-down houses,
ghost neighbourhoods and towns destroyed to the ground. More than twelve
millions Syrians, 50% of the population, are lacking a roof.
They form the largest mass of refugees since the Second World War.
Several millions have left the country in search of more merciful skies.
Many are waiting for mercy in camps of misery, some have drowned attempting
to leave, and others are in line at embassies, nomads in search of a welcoming
land. How can they leave this Syria of torments?

2) A Shattered Family
The family, which fortifies Church and Nation and has saved the country
in the past, is heavily shaken. Seldom is a complete family found. Violence
has scattered this basic cell of society. Some family members are in graves,
others in exile, in prison or on the battlefield. This painful situation
is the cause of depression and anxiety and forces those few left without
support to beg.
Young fiancées, separated by this exodus, the immigration of
their partner or military mobilisation, cannot marry. Crisis surrounds
them. A hope for their future has crumbled. How is it possible to follow
course without a family or with a broken family?

3) A Sacrificed Childhood
The children are the most fragile. They have paid a great price for
this merciless violence. According to UNESCO, more than three million Syrian
children havent attended school because they have to prioritise their
physical wellbeing. Those that have been to school witness the demise of
the quality of teaching due to fewer faculty and students in remaining
schools. These overwhelming circumstances impose academic failure.
The centres of psychological support cannot overcome the number and
depth of wounds and psychic blocks. How do we restore the spirit of these
children destroyed by violence and barbaric scenes?

4) Threatened Parishes
Parishes have seen the number of parishioners diminish and pastoral
activities reduced considerably. The priests are deprived of the means
to provide human and spiritual support. The Church of Damascus has witnessed
the departure of one third of their clergy (27 priests). This is a hard
blow weakening the place and role of the Christian minority already in
decline.
The priests struggling to remain without any reassurances consider
negotiating their eventual departure. They only wait for humanitarian agencies
to arrive to assist broken families.
How do we fix this alarming haemorrhage?
Can we imagine a Church without priests?

5) Between Pain and Freedom
The Syrian people are no longer looking for liberty. Their daily combat
is finding bread, water, gas and fuel, which are harder and harder to find.
Electrical shortages have become more frequent and lengthy. These darken
nights and reduce any social life.
The search for lost brothers, parents and friends is a very discrete,
anxious and hopeful undertaking.
Finding a little room for shelter in a country in ruins has become
an impossible dream for families and even more for young fiancés.
Fighting for liberty or searching for bread, what course should one
take?
This little Syrian population lives this reality with pain visible
in silent looks and streams of tears.
This bitter Lent of 2017 offers us time in the desert to take a good
look at our commitment to the Church in the midst of faithful in distress,
to lead the way towards Christ Resurrected. Christ Light of the world who
knows the hearts of men and women says: Come to me, all who are weary
and burdened, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28)

Iraqi Christians erect large cross in area liberated
from ISISCross erected in Telekuf-Tesqopa, Iraq. Credit: Patriarchate of
Babylon.

Mosul, Iraq, Feb 23, 2017 / 04:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- After years of
darkness, hope has returned to Telekuf-Tesqopa. Located just 17 miles from
Mosul, the village is rebuilding after being liberated from ISIS.
As a visible sign of the rebuilding, a giant cross was erected on a
hill, marking the victory of the Christian faith against the darkness of
the jihadists.
On Feb. 18, the Chaldean Catholic Patriarch of Baghdad, Louis Sako,
visited the village, where he blessed the large cross and participated
in the celebration of the first Mass after two and a half years in Saint
George Church.
According to the website of the Patriarchate of Babylon, the authorities
and officials of the region were present at the celebration.
In his homily, Patriarch Sako said that this event is the first spark
of light shining in all the cities of the Nineveh Plain since the darkness
of ISIS, which lasted almost two and a half years.
This is our land and this is our home, he told the faithful. He also
said that now is the time to regain hope and for the people to return to
their towns to begin a new stage of life.
The patriarch said that Christians will thus demonstrate to the world
that the forces of darkness, which wreaked havoc and ravaged their land,
are ephemeral and that the Church of Christ, although it suffers, is built
upon rock.
When the Mass was over, everyone went out to a hill located on the
outskirts of the city. There Patriarch Sako blessed the huge cross which
was raised amid fireworks and with cries of Victory! Victory! Victory!
For those who chose the faith and those who return!
The Catholic Patriarch said that this cross will announce to the world
that this is our land, we were born here and we will die here. Our ancestors
were buried in this pure land and we are going to remain to preserve them
with all our might and for future generations.
It is a sincere and great call to return and rebuild. We are joined
to our land, to our future on the land of our ancestors. Here we can be
proud of our history and here we can obtain the granting of all our rights,
Patriarch Sako said.
Before the celebration of the Mass, a delegation came to Telekuf-Tesqopa
to assess the state of damage and to thus ask for the support of international
organizations for reconstruction. Saint George Church was cleaned by volunteers
from the French aid organization SOS Chrétiens dOrient. (SOS Christians
of the East).
The placement of crosses has become a recurring gesture since the Iraqi
Army began the offensive to recover the city of Mosul, the ISIS stronghold
in Iraq.
In every village liberated on the Plain of Nineveh, Christians have
made wooden crosses and have placed them on the roofs of churches and homes.
Muslims have also participated in these events. Last week, a group
of Muslims youths joined those cleaning a church dedicated to the Virgin
Mary located in east Mosul, liberated by the Iraqi Army.
This action is part of a campaign that seeks to remember the religious
coexistence that was present in the city before the jihadists occupied
it in 2014.

Hundreds of Christians have fled the city of el-Arish
in Egypt after a spate of attacks by suspected Islamic militants.Egyptians
carry candles during a vigil for the victims of a bomb explosion that targeted
the St Peter and St Paul Coptic Orthodox Church on December 11, 2016 (Photo:
Getty)

A priest says 1,000 Christians have fled, with some receiving
threats on their mobile phones

A priest told the Associated Press that he and some 1,000 other Christians
had fled for fear of being targeted next. He blamed lax security, saying:
You feel like this is all meant to force us to leave our homes. We became
like refugees.

It was earlier reported that militants had shot dead a Coptic Christian
man, Kamel Youssef, in front of his wife and daughter. The account had
been given by two officials speaking on condition of anonymity.

A priest in the city said militants then kidnapped and stabbed his daughter
before dumping her body near a police station. It wasnt immediately possible
to confirm his account.

No militant group has claimed responsibility for the attack but earlier
this week Egypts Islamic State group affiliate, which is based in the
Sinai Peninsula, vowed in a video to step up attacks against the embattled
Christian minority. A spate of killings by suspected militants have spread
fears among the Coptic community in el-Arish as families left their homes
after reportedly receiving threats on their mobile phones.

A day before Youssefs killings, militants killed a Coptic Christian
man and burned his son alive, then dumped their bodies on a roadside in
el-Arish. Three others Christians in Sinai were killed earlier, either
in drive-by shooting or with militants storming their homes and shops.

The Coptic Church has made no official comment on the spate of murders.

Coptic Christians, who make up 10 per cent of Egypts population, have
increasingly come under attack since the militarys overthrow of elected
Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in 2013. A top target of Islamic extremists
throughout the years, the Christians heavily supported the army-chief-turned-president,
Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, and his security crackdown on Islamists since Morsis
removal.

The priest, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution,
said a total of 30 Christians  including Coptic soldiers  have been killed
since then, including two priests.

The northern region of Sinai, bordering Gaza Strip and Israel, has been
a battleground between the military and Islamic militants since 2011 when
the region sank into lawlessness during the 18-day uprising that led to
the ouster of longtime autocratic President Hosni Mubarak.

Since then, there have been waves of Christian displacement. The first
one was from the town of Rafah when the only church, the Holy Family, was
looted, torched and destroyed in several militant attacks. The church is
built on the site where Christians believe the Holy Family first stopped
to rest after crossing into Egypt. Subsequent waves followed militants
threats in past years. According to the priest, less than 1,000 remain.

El-Sissi declared a state of emergency and imposed a curfew in the volatile
region in 2014 in the aftermath of deadly suicide bombings that killed
over 30 soldiers. Blaming the stepped-up militancy on Gazas ruling Hamas
group, which uses underground tunnels for smuggling contraband, the Egyptian
military razed hundreds of houses in the border area to create a buffer
zone and stop what it described as the infiltration of extremists from
Gaza.

Since 2013, Islamic militants have carried out several suicide bombings
across Egypt, mainly against the police and the army. However, in December,
an IS-affiliated suicide bomber blew himself up inside a landmark Cairo
church, killing around 30 worshippers, mostly women.

That attack marked a turning point in the Sunni militant groups strategy
as Christians became its top targets. The extremists have used Christians
support for el-Sissi as a pretext to increase attacks against them.

The Islamic State groups video, released on Monday, showed the bomber
behind the December church attack and described the Christians as infidels
who are empowering the West against Muslim nations.

Congo Catholics targeted by violenceSeveral religious communities in the Democratic Republic of Congo
(DRC) were subjected to violent attacks last weekend. In Kinshasa, pamphlets
are being distributed, calling for the destruction of Catholic schools
and churches.Jean-Paul Musangania and Loup Besmond de Senneville - February 22,
2017

Congolese achieved an agreement between the government and the opposition
at the end of 2016 but it is yet to be implemented. / T. Mukoya/Reuters

The Catholic Church is being deliberately targeted, in order to destroy
its mission of peace and reconciliation.Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo is
angry. In a message published on Sunday, the Archbishop of Kinshasa, the
DRC's capital, strongly condemned the violent attacks on a parish and a
major seminary.
Along with all bishops, we denounce these acts of violence, which
are likely to plunge our country further into unspeakable chaos.The Cardinal
seldom expresses his opinions, which makes his statement all the more powerful.The
first attack, on Saturday, was the ransacking of the major Seminary of
Malole of Kananga, in central Kasai, a province in the center of the DRC.

They systematically broke down the doors to different rooms and destroyed
everything inside. They entered the teachers rooms and burned their belongings,
Father Richard Kitenge, the Seminary Rector, told Agence France-Presse.The
men responsible for this violence belong to a militia operating in the
name of a traditional chief, Kamwina Nsapu. The group uses many child-soldiers.The
second act of violence on the same weekend was the attack on a parish in
Kinshasa by about a dozen men. Before Mass, the furniture of Saint Dominics
Church was broken, the altar was vandalized and the tabernacle desecrated.
A community of nuns not far from the parish was also attacked.The police
arrived too late

We are all in shock, said Father Julien Wato, the Dominican priest
of the Kinshasa church.Although he went on to say that he is not afraid
for his own safety, he spoke about the tense mood in the Congolese capital.In
the street, its not unusual to hear threats against the Church.Two suspects
have been arrested and the church was closed for several days.On Sunday,
Pope Francis called upon the countrys leaders to stabilize the situation
quickly. He condemned, in particular, the use of child-soldiers.
"I suffer deeply for the victims, especially for so many children ripped
from their families and their schools to be used as soldiers, he stated.Are
these violent attacks linked to the actions of the Catholic Church that,
for the past few months, has been mediating between those in power and
the opposition?

The intention of the mediation is to get the country out of the political
crisis caused by President Joseph Kabilas refusal to step down, even though
his mandate ended on 20 December.The link is plausible. St Dominics
Church in Kinshasa is not far from the headquarters of the Union for Democracy
and Social Progress (UDPS), the opposition party that, until his death
on 1 February in Brussels at the age of 84, was led by Étienne
Tshisekedi.Tshisekedis death was announced, certain party members
threatened to seize the property and assets of the Catholic Church.
This was because they are angry about the delay in the implementation
of the agreement on a political transition, signed on 31 December.
The agreement allows the President to remain in power until elections
are held at the end of 2017 and a successor takes office. During this period,
a person picked by the opposition will serve as prime minister and have
powers that would check Kabila's authority.

Under the terms of the agreement, brokered by the Catholic Church, Kabila
cannot seek a third term in office, which would violate the constitution.For
several days, pamphlets have been circulating in Kinshasa, calling for
the destruction of Catholic schools and churches, and religious communities.In
this time of tension, Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo called upon the political
leaders of the Congo to abandon their moral turpitude.We are asking each
one of them to demonstrate wisdom, restraint and the spirit of democracy
to resolve the issue regarding the designation of a prime minister, he
said.Monsengwo added that this was necessary to alleviate the current
crisis that could threaten the elections that are meant to be held at the
end of this year, in accordance with the St Sylvester agreement".

Politicians ought to acknowledge with humility, before their nation
and the international community, their political tendencies and the immorality
of their self-serving decisions," Monsengwo stated. He said this situation
is "leading to impasses and institutional deadlock".
History will hold them accountable.

Iraqi Christian: IS made me spit on a CrossZarefa
was forcedto convert to Islam and spit on a Cross.Published on: 8:52 am, January 19, 2017 by: mattersindia.com

Fr. Habib
One of the major themes explored in Martin Scorseses film, Silence,
is the question of how to respond when faced with a choice between denying
ones faith or facing death.
Christians in 17th century Japan were given this choice, and its the
same for Christians in many parts of the world today.
Throughout the film, the audience is shown Christians being told to
step on  or, in one case, spit on  an image of Jesus or Mary. Some do;
others cant.
This same choice was given to Zarefa, an elderly Iraqi Christian woman,
when the Islamic State captured her town in 2014. During a raid on the
house where she was staying, IS fighters found a few crucifixes and other
Christian images  strictly illegal under IS rule.

They forced me to spit on the Cross, Zarefa recalls. I told them
that it was not appropriate, that it was a sin. He said that I must spit.
Dont you see that I have a gun? he asked me. I said to myself, Oh,
the Cross! I am weak, I will spit on you. But Lord, I ask you to take revenge
for me. I cannot escape from this.
I said to myself, Oh, the Cross! I am weak, I will spit on you. But
Lord, I ask you to take revenge for me. I cannot escape from this.
The shame is still visible on Zarefas face when she recounts the memory;
her town, Qaraqosh, is liberated now, but she is still recovering from
the traumatic two years that are only just behind her.
Zarefas husband died shortly after Qaraqosh was captured. She remembers
the warning signs in the days beforehand, when a group of teenagers on
motorbikes chastised her for speaking in Syriac  a language closely related
to the Aramaic that Jesus spoke.
Speak our language! they shouted, in Arabic, the language of Islam.

By that time, many families had already left Qaraqosh, after IS had
overpowered and completely overrun the Iraqi army, leaving the Christians
unprotected.
For Zarefa, running was no option. Her husband was dying and she had
no enemies in the town; she thought the two of them would be left in peace.
Zarefa was one of the few Christians who decided to stay in Qaraqosh.
But Zarefa soon found out there is no such thing as living in peace
under IS rule.
She shared how, soon after IS came, her husband passed away, leaving
her a widow and more vulnerable than ever.
She moved in with neighbours, but IS fighters repeatedly harassed them
and robbed all of the valuables they could get their hands on. And not
just valuables.
One day, the man whose house I was a guest in never came home. Some
people said he was killed and buried in an open area. Others said that
he fell in a hole. Another one said that only God knows what happened to
him. The fact is that we have not seen him since, Zarefa recalls.

I begged them and asked them why we must do such a thing. We will not
add anything to your case by converting to Islam, we told them. Let us
choose our own way and religion.
From then on it was just the two elderly, single women left. As soon
as IS found out about them, they told the women to move to nearby Mosul.
We told them that we dont want to leave; that we belong here, Zarefa
says. That this is our home; we want to stay here. But they made us leave
against our will. In the night, they took us from our house, they put bags
over our heads and asked us if we had converted to Islam.
Frightened, Zarefa says she quickly told them that I had.
A few hours later, when their hoods were lifted, the two women found
themselves in an IS womens prison full of mostly divorced women. (In the
eyes of IS, its a crime for a woman to divorce.)
After a few days, Zarefa and her friend managed to return to Qaraqosh
as Muslim women, but when they arrived, they found three IS soldiers
waiting to question them.

They requested that we openly profess adherence to Islam, Zarefa says.
I begged them and asked them why we must do such a thing. We will not
add anything to your case by converting to Islam, we told them. Let us
choose our own way and religion.
The leader of the group got angry, drew a gun, pointed it at Zarefas
heart, and threatened to kill her if she didnt convert to Islam.
What would you do if you were in our position? she asks. He said
something, asked us to repeat it, and then asked if we were Muslims. Yes,
we said. Yes, we are. And then they left.
But that was not enough; the harassment continued.
Zarefa says different IS fighters continually came to their home and
demanded money and valuables at gunpoint. When they had taken nearly everything
and she was left almost bankrupt, she hid her last savings  the equivalent
of 250 dollars  in her bra.
But even that was discovered.
They forced me to take it off, and then they took my money, Zarefa
recalls, embarrassed by the memory. Then that man pushed me down on the
couch, put his gun on my chest, and threatened me because he was convinced
there was more to rob. He shouted at me: We will be cruel to you until
you obey.
Christians eager to return home

Today, 18 January, the Iraqi army has announced that it has recaptured
vast swathes of Mosul east of the Tigris River, which runs through the
city. The army says its now preparing to fight to retake the area of Mosul
west of the Tigris.
Despite ordeals such as Zarefas, Iraqi Christians who fled outlying
towns like Qaraqosh (east of Mosul) when IS came in 2014 are eager to
return home, according to one young Christian in Karamles.
We are eager to return to our liberated areas, Valentine told Al-Monitor.
Fr. Thabet Habib, who pastors a church in the town, added: The time
has come for Christians to return to the liberated areas in Nineveh Valley,
now that the military operations have ended. Though he admitted the return
will be gradual.

World Watch Monitor reported in December that the conflict with IS had
left thousands of homes uninhabitable.
It seems they wanted to make sure nothing of value would remain,
Fr. Habib told World Watch Monitor. The effect is a mounting feeling of
hopelessness among the Christians when they discover the damage. They will
really need time to recover from this news, to adjust to the new perspective
of living in displacement longer than they might have expected.
Fr. Habib said as much as 80% of the infrastructure in the Hamdaniya
district, where Karamles is located, had been destroyed.
But one resident, Sara Bahnam, told Al-Monitor she is desperate to
return home.

We are sick and tired of being displaced and paying rent in recent
years. I will be the first to return to Hamdaniya and to my house, whatever
the obstacles, she said.
Meanwhile, a US bishop has said that the Syriac Catholic Archbishop
of Mosul told him he is against the construction of a safe corridor for
religious minorities in Iraq.
Bishop Oscar Cantu told the Catholic News Service that Archbishop Yohanna
Moshe told him: We dont want to live in a ghetto. That is counterproductive.
That makes us a target for our enemies. We have to live in a secure but
integrated community where Chaldean Catholics, Syriac Catholics, Sunni
Muslims, etc., have relationships with each other.
We need an integrated reality, rather than a Gaza where theres
a wall and someone is guarding people going in and out.
(Source: World Watch Monitor)

A file with personal details of Fr Tom Uzhunnalil in Bangalore, India
(AP)

In a video message Fr Tom Uzhunnalil says his health is deteriorating

The emergence of a video in which Salesian Fr Tom Uzhunnalil, kidnapped
by ISIS in Yemen in March, is seen appealing for his release has led to
widespread calls for diplomatic efforts to end his captivity.

Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Indias minister of state for parliamentary affairs,
reiterated to Cardinal George Alencherry of Ernakulam-Angamaly, major archbishop
of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, that the government is doing everything
possible during a meeting at Church headquarters in Cochin.

The ministers visit came a day after a five-minute video of a visibly
weak Fr Uzhunnalil making an emotional appeal for his release. The Salesian
hails from Indias Kerala state.

In the video, Fr Uzhunnalil appeared to blame both the Indian government
and Church officials for failing to secure his release. He claimed his
captors had made several contacts with the Indian government and yet I
am very sad that nothing has been done seriously in my regard.

If I were a European priest, I would have been taken more seriously.
I am from India. I am perhaps not considered as of much value Dear Pope
Francis, dear Holy Father, as a father please take care of my life. I am
very much depressed. My health is deteriorating, the priest is seen saying.

Yu Zhengsheng said Catholics should 'adhere to the Sinicisation path
of the religion'
One of Chinas top leaders has told Chinese Catholics that they need
to promote socialism and patriotism through religion and operate independently
of non-Chinese authorities.
Yu Zhengshengs speech came at the end of a meeting of Chinas official
Catholic church that was being closely watched by the Holy See. Yu is one
of seven members of the Politburo Standing Committee, Chinas top decision-making
body. His speech could be a measure of how much Beijing is willing to yield
in potential dialogue with the Holy See.
Yu called on Catholics to take decisions independently from Rome, saying:
The Church should adhere to the principles of self-administration, run
religious affairs independently and guide believers to adhere to the Sinicisation
path of the religion.
State media reported that Yu called on Catholic churches to adhere
to socialism with Chinese characteristics  a term that describes Chinas
model of development, which for decades has favoured economic liberalisation
but not political reform. Chinas ruling Communist Party is officially
atheistic. Yu also said Chinese Catholics should adhere to the correct
direction of development.
China and the Vatican have long clashed over whether the party-controlled
Chinese church could operate outside the Popes authority. Beijing severed
relations with the Holy See in 1951, shortly after the Communist Party
took power, and officially allows worship only in state-sanctioned churches.
Many of Chinas estimated 12 million Catholics are thought to worship in
underground congregations.
Starting under Pope Benedict XVI, the Vatican has sought to unite Chinese
Catholics under the Holy See. Pope Francis has said that both sides had
resumed meetings of working groups over the naming of bishops, an issue
central to the dispute between both sides.
But just last week, the Vatican said it was saddened that the ordination
of two new Chinese bishops was marred by the presence of a bishop ordained
without the Popes consent. It said it would watch this weeks conference
with hope for new confidence in the Vatican-China dialogue.
Wang Zuoan, Chinas head of religious affairs, said earlier this week
he hoped the Vatican would be flexible and pragmatic, and take concrete
steps to improve relations, state media reported. No details were given
of what Beijing expects.
State media also reported that Bishop Ma Yinglin was re-elected president
of one of the groups at the conference, the Bishops Conference of Catholic
Church of China. Ma was excommunicated in 2006 by the Vatican after being
named by the Chinese church as a bishop in southwestern Yunnan province.
The Vatican-affiliated AsiaNews service, which closely covers the underground
church in China, quoted on Thursday one priest from northern China calling
the meeting a staged theatrical representation.
The priest, identified only as Fr Peter, said: Everything was very
well planned: the assignment of roles, their scripts, the well-chosen audience,
who raised their hands to vote and approve content, the media coverage.

Venezuelan Fr Arturo Sosa Abascal is named new leader
of the Jesuitsby Staff Reporterposted Friday, 14 Oct 2016The new superior general greets the previous superior general, Fr
Adolfo Nicolás, after his election (CNS)

He becomes the 30th successor of St Ignatius of Loyola
Fr Arturo Sosa Abascal has been voted the next superior general of
the Society of Jesus.
The Venezuelan becomes the 30th successor of Jesuit founder St Ignatius
of Loyola and leader of the Catholic Churchs largest religious order.
He is the Jesuits first non-European leader and also the first superior
general to be elected under a Jesuit pope.
He succeeds Fr Adolfo Nicolás, a Spanish priest who formally
resigned this month aged 80.
The election took place in Rome today.
Fr Sosa was born in Caracas on November 12, 1948. He is the Delegate
of the General for the International Houses and Works of the Society of
Jesus in Rome.
He has a Political Science doctorate from the Universidad Central de
Venezuela. He speaks Spanish, Italian and English.

WARSAW, POLAND When a group of Polish Catholics declared support for
a gay rights campaign, their involvement was quickly condemned by the country's
bishops conference. Having raised the issue in the church, however, the
group is determined to press on and ensure the atmosphere of understanding
engendered by Pope Francis finds a louder echo in Poland.
"The bishops' reaction is only a first step -- what matters is that
they've now felt it necessary to take up a position on LGBT issues," explained
Dominika Kozlowska, editor of the Catholic monthly Znak (The Sign). "The
Catholics who've engaged in this campaign will also continue to talk about
these issues in publications and discussions. Though the bishops have accused
us of infringing Gospel injunctions, they've also said things in the process
which haven't been said in the church here before."

The campaign, "Let's exchange a sign of peace," was launched in early
September with nationwide billboards depicting clasped hands -- one with
a rainbow bracelet and the other with a Catholic rosary.

Organizers include Poland's Campaign Against Homophobia and a Christian
group, Faith and Rainbow, which ran a network of "LGBT pilgrim havens"
during the church's summer World Youth Day in Krakow.

They've outlined plans for public meetings around the country with LGBT
activists and prominent Catholics, and vowed to remind Poland's mostly
Catholic population of what the church officially teaches -- that Christian
values "include the necessity of respect, openness and willing dialogue
with all people, including homosexuals, bisexuals and transsexuals."

Several Catholic magazines and newspapers pitched in with expressions
of support on the campaign's website, znakpokoju.com, including Wiez (The
Link) in Warsaw, and Znak and Tygodnik Powszechny (Universal Weekly) in
Krakow.

Polish church leaders reacted differently, however.

In a Sept. 8 statement published in the Polish Catholic information
agency, KAI, Krakow's archbishop, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, accused the
campaign's Catholic backers of selectively quoting the pope and "falsifying
the church's unchangeable teaching," by promoting "not just respect for
homosexual people, but a view of homosexual acts and same-sex unions as
something morally good."

From Warsaw, Cardinal Kazimierz Nycz also hit out at the campaign's
supporters in a Sept. 10 statement with KAI. Encouraging "respect and goodwill
for homosexuals" was fine by Catholic teaching, Nycz said. But some Catholics
were "criticizing church teaching on how to evaluate homosexuality," and
even "suggesting a need to modify or change it."

On Sept. 14, the whole Bishops' Conference presidium pitched in, attacking
Wiez, Znak and Tygodnik Powszechny by name, and rejecting claims that the
Polish church was homophobic. Although LGBT groups often accused the church
of violating their dignity, the bishops said, the church was in reality
"the only institution which, for two thousand years, has untiringly proclaimed
the dignity of all without exception."

"But if extending hands to others means accepting the person, it never
means approving their sin," the communique continued. "Members of a community
gathered in the liturgy have a permanent duty to be converted, and meet
Gospel demands by turning away from their sinful fancies. We fear this
action, extracting the extended hand gesture from its liturgical context,
assumes a meaning incompatible with the teaching of Christ and the church."

Gay and lesbian groups have frequently complained of discrimination
in Poland, where the predominant Catholic church opposed clauses in a 1997
constitution barring discrimination on grounds of ''sexual orientation"
and has rejected repeated requests for a pastoral service for homosexuals.

In 2010, the European Union criticized church-owned schools and colleges
for refusing to employ declared homosexual staffers, while in January 2013,
the church thanked Polish members of parliament for voting down a bill
to allow same-sex civil partnerships.

In December 2013, the bishops attacked the "ideology of gender" in a
pastoral letter, warning it was "deeply destructive" to "all social life"
and calling on Poles to resist it. A year later, church leaders attacked
state broadcasting directors for allowing TV channels to run a half-minute
program defending gays and lesbians.

And in October 2015, the Polish church's vigorous stance was forcefully
presented at Rome's Synod of Bishops, when its chief representative, Archbishop
Stanislaw Gadecki of Poznan, condemned "feelings of false compassion" and
rejected any rethink on homosexuality.

Surveys suggests more and more Polish Catholics are questioning their
church's teachings on issues like this, while the widening gap between
church teaching and public opinion appears to be exacerbating feelings
of rejection and alienation.

In one recent questionnaire on Poland's Queer.pl website, only 21 percent
of gays and lesbians claimed to be "faithful and practicing" Christians,
less than a third of the national average, while 47 percent said they were
no longer Catholics and further 30 percent described themselves as "believers
who avoid the Catholic church."

Hopes have been aroused in Poland, not surprisingly, by the pope's conciliatory
statements on homosexuality, including his March 2016 apostolic exhortation
Amoris Laetitia, and his statement on a June flight from Armenia that the
church "must say it's sorry to the gay person it has offended."

In July, before Francis arrived in Krakow for World Youth Day, a group
of parents with LGBT children wrote to the pontiff, begging him to speak
out against the "hatred" directed at their families. Given the Polish church's
strong influence on public opinion, they asked, why were priests not defending
LGBT citizens in their homilies, and speaking out against "attacks of verbal
and physical violence."

"We are moved by fear about the fate and future of our children -- a
fear justified by the homophobia which is very widespread in our society,"
the group told the pope. "LGBT people are excluded from the church, although
many believe in God and wish to practice and nurture their faith. Holy
Masses and meditations for homosexuals are conducted secretly and in hiding,
and few priests have any feeling for them. ... Why is the church watching
with such indifference?"

Kozlowska, the Catholic editor, thinks the pope's "good example" could
hold the key. Social and cultural attitudes are changing in Poland, as
in other countries, she says, with more citizens now living in "irregular
situations."

Having refused to recognize homosexuality as a genuine orientation,
and seen it only as something sinful, Poland's Catholic bishops now have
to consider the subject more carefully.

"The institutional church must start offering adequate pastoral support
for this part of our society, rather than just treating these issues ideologically,"
the Znak editor told NCR. "I think Francis is offering a way out of the
deadlock, by proposing new ways of thinking, acting and speaking, and giving
a new quality to church reflections. This is something quite new for Poland,
and conservatives and progressives here should all learn from it."

Yet the battle looks set to continue, as the pope's teachings are struggled
over and rival Catholic groups vie other to influence the church's agenda.

When the Polish bishops' communique was published Sept. 15, Kozlowska
and her Catholic editor colleagues from other publications defended their
move in a statement of their own and welcomed the bishops' affirmation
"with Pope Francis, that every person must be respected, whatever their
sexual orientation."

They had acted "in full accord with the Magisterium," they insisted,
in "engaging in church activity to ensure appropriate pastoral care for
LGBT people" -- and they had no intention of "asserting political, legal
or doctrinal demands."

"Our involvement as media patrons of this campaign was aimed solely
at stressing those elements of church teaching which are little known and
disseminated in Poland," the Catholic editors wrote. "Polish Catholics
have now received a clear call from their pastors to treat homosexual brothers
and sisters with dignity and respect. If our involvement in this campaign
was improperly understood, perhaps this was a felix culpa, or fortunate
mistake."

Yet in their statement, the bishops conference warned that homosexual
acts must continue to be viewed as "objective moral evils," and cautioned
Catholics not to play any part in a campaign whose postulates "clearly
depart from the Gospel" and could "damage society and individuals."

Nycz has said he's planning to talk with the editors to clarify his
"justified doubts," while KAI has accused them of helping "promote homosexual
attitudes."

Some conservative church groups are circulating a petition, demanding
that Wiez, Znak and Tygodnik Powszechny, all founded in the post-War communist
years, are stripped of their "Catholic" titles.

Despite the furor, Kozlowska is hopeful.

Although LGBT issues have long been talked about by Poland's media,
she says, the church itself has rarely touched the subject. And when it
has done, it's invariably been in "very strong language," insisting family
life and all social relations must be governed by natural law.

Even while condemning the latest campaign, the bishops will have raised
LGBT issues to a new level and been forced to confront them more credibly
and effectively.

"No one us wants to start an open struggle with the bishops, interfere
with their teaching or make a public declaration of doctrinal opposition,"
she told NCR. "But we hope the bishops' communique and our subsequent statement
won't be the last act in this area. The voice of lay Catholics is weak
in Poland and the habits of submission are strong. But things are clearly
evolving, so we should be optimistic."

[Jonathan Luxmoore's two-volume study of communist-era martyrs, The
God of the Gulag, is published by Gracewing in the UK.]

Catholicisms incredible growth storyby Philip Jenkinsposted Thursday, 8 Sep 2016There are around 1.2 billion Catholics in the world today; by 2050
it may be 1.6 billion (CNS)

Critics keep announcing the Church's imminent demise. If only they realised
that numbers have doubled since 1970  and are still rising
In many parts of the world, its difficult to feel optimistic about
the future of the Catholic Church. Some years ago, the American Physical
Society heard an alarming paper that predicted the countries in the world
that would have no religion whatever by 2100, and high on the list were
such former Catholic heartlands as Austria and Ireland  Ireland! For over
a decade now, we have heard so many appalling stories of sexual abuse and
scandal that we might even be tempted to ask if the Church can really survive.
It is strange then to realise that this Church  which is already,
by far, the largest religious institution on the planet  is in fact enjoying
global growth on an unprecedented scale. In 1950, the worlds Catholic
population was 437 million, a figure that grew to 650 million by 1970,
and to around 1.2 billion today. Put another way, Catholic numbers have
doubled since 1970, and that change has occurred during all the recent
controversies and crises within the Church, all the debates following Vatican
II and all the claims about the rise of secularism.
Nor does the rate of growth show any sign of diminishing. By 2050,
a conservative estimate suggests there should be at least 1.6 billion Catholics.
I spoke about global growth, and that global element demands emphasis.
The Church has an excellent claim to have invented globalisation, and that
goes far towards explaining just why its numbers are actually booming.
Throughout history there had been so many so-called world empires which
in reality were mainly confined to Eurasia. Only in the 16th century did
the Spanish and Portuguese empires truly span the globe. For me, true globalisation
began in 1578, when the Catholic Church established its diocese at Manila,
in the Philippines  as a suffragan see of Mexico City, on the other side
of the immense Pacific Ocean.
Those once mighty empires are long departed, but their ghosts remain
in the thriving Catholic populations of Brazil, Mexico and the Philippines,
which today constitute the Churchs three largest population centres. Mexicos
overall population has swelled from 50 million in 1970 to 121 million today,
so of course there are lots more Catholics in that country. The Philippines,
meanwhile, today claims 80 million Catholics, a number that will likely
increase to well over 100 million by 2050. Last year, there were more Catholic
baptisms in that country than in France, Spain, Italy and Poland combined.
A cynical observer might object that Church growth is solely the result
of surging populations in particular regions where Catholicism happens
to be the default religion. Certainly, as always, demographics plays its
part in religious change, but this is by no means the whole story, and
the clearest proof of this is found in Africa. Back in 1900, Africa had
perhaps 10 million Christians of all denominations, constituting some 10
per cent of the whole population. Today, there are half a billion African
Christians, accounting for half the continental population, and that number
should exceed a billion by the 2040s.
This phenomenal growth  which is, incidentally, by far the largest
quantitative change that has ever occurred in any religion, anywhere 
is in part the result of the continents overall population growth.
In 1900, there were three Europeans for every African. By 2050, there
will be three Africans for every European. But this expansion is also,
clearly, the result of mass conversions. During the 20th century, some
40 per cent of Africas people shifted their allegiance from older primal
faiths to Christianity.
Although Catholics do not represent the whole of this African story,
they are a very significant part of it. In 1900, the whole of Africa had
just a couple of million Catholics, but that number grew to 130 million
by the end of the century, and today it approaches 200 million. If current
trends continue, as they show every sign of doing, then by the 2040s there
will be some 460 million African Catholics. Incredibly, that number would
be greater than the total world population of Catholics as it stood in
1950.
Already by about 2030, we will cross a historic milestone when the
number of Catholics in Africa will exceed the number for Europe. A few
years after that, Africa will overtake Latin America to claim the title
of the most Catholic continent. Within just a generation from now, a list
of the 10 nations with the largest Catholic populations will include several
names where Catholicism was virtually new in 1900: African lands such as
Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Now, there are some problems with these numbers. I have been citing
official Church figures, but those counts of the faithful are actually
quite flawed. If you look at survey evidence of religious belief, youll
find a major disparity between the number of people claiming to be Catholic
versus the totals reported by Church authorities. But that gap is not what
we might intuitively suspect. Far from optimistically over-counting the
faithful, the African Church is systematically under-counting, and by a
whopping 20 per cent. They might be too busy baptising people to keep very
good records.
Nor is this just an African story. Just since 1980, the total number
of African Catholics grew by 238 per cent, while the equivalent rate in
Asia was 115 per cent, and 56 per cent in the Americas.
Of course, if you want to see Catholic growth in action, you dont
have to make the effort to travel to Africa or Asia, as booming Catholic
Africa and Asia are coming to you. In recent decades, many millions of
migrants from the global South have travelled northwards, and a great many
of those are Catholic. We see plenty of evidence of this in British churches,
and especially in the countrys old and revived pilgrimage sites, but similar
patterns can be seen across Europe. Look at the number of parishes in historically
Catholic Europe  in Ireland or France, say  which are now graced by priests
from Nigeria or Vietnam.
This reality was brought home to me when I visited Denmark, which is
historically one of the continents least Catholic nations. But go to a
small city like Aarhus and watch the floods of people surrounding the small
Catholic church, where Masses are offered in languages as diverse as Vietnamese,
English, Chaldean and Tagalog (the last being the main tongue of the Philippines).
The global Church comes home; or perhaps we should say, the empires strike
back.
When we consider those African statistics alone, any suggestion of
the Catholic Church dying or even stagnating is so wildly inaccurate
as to be comical. Strangely, though, this is not the first time that at
least some observers have felt that prospects for the Church were so dismal.
Back in the 1890s, Mark Twain sagely observed that: In this world we have
seen the Roman Catholic power dying for many centuries. Many a time we
have gotten all ready for the funeral and found it postponed again, on
account of the weather or something Apparently one of the most uncertain
things in the world is the funeral of a religion.
See you at the graveside?

Russian government introduces draconian Soviet era
restrictions on religious freedom  churches all over Russia turn to prayer
and fastingRussia, June 30, 2016: Christians in Russia called for prayer and fasting
as the country looks set to introduce draconian new restrictions on freedom
of religion similar to those that existed in the Communist era.
Last Friday two members of the Russian Duma (parliament) introduced
a series of amendments to anti-terrorist legislation that would require
individuals to gain prior state authorisation before even discussing their
faith with someone else. The Duma adopted the amendments and on despite
major protests by churches on Wednesday the bill was passed by the Council
of the Russian Federation. It now goes to Russian President Vladimir Putin
who has until July 20th to decide whether the bill will become law
The new law will require any sharing of the Christian faith  even
a casual conversation  to have prior authorisation from the state. This
includes something as basic as an emailed invitation for a friend to attend
church. Even in a private home, worship and prayer will only be allowed
if there are no unbelievers present. Churches will also be held accountable
for the activities of their members. So if, for example, a church member
mentions their faith in conversation with a work colleague, not only the
church member but also the church itself could be punished, with individuals
facing fines of up to 50,000 roubles (£580; USD770; €700). There
are also restrictions on the extent to which churches can have contact
with foreigners; for example, any non-Russian citizen attending a church
service would be required to have a work visa or face a fine and expulsion
from Russia.
The bill appears to be using the excuse of anti-terrorist legislation
to clamp down on any churches other than the Russian Orthodox, support
for which is closely tied to Russian nationalism. President Putin has in
recent years increasingly emphasised his own membership of the Russian
Orthodox Church as a means of bolstering popular support for himself. However,
even some senior members of the Russian Orthodox Church have voiced concerns
about the bill.
If passed, the extent that this law is implemented will depend on local
authorities. However, the bill is vaguely worded and, with a heavily politicised
judiciary, could lead to a situation similar to that faced by Christians
in the Communist era.
Barnabas Fund colleagues in Russia have expressed serious concerns
about the proposed measures. Leaders of Russias Baptist Union called a
national day of prayer and fasting yesterday (Wednesday 29 June) as the
Council of the Russian Federation discussed the bill. Meanwhile, the Advisory
Council of Heads of Protestant Churches of Russia has urgently appealed
to Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop the legislation. Now in scenes
reminiscent of the book of Esther (4:1-17) churches all over Russia are
praying and fasting for deliverance from this edict.

More tribal people choosing Christianity in India:
reportBut
some question the official data, fearing it can be used for divisive politicking
More tribal people choosing Christianity in India: reportIndian Lambadi tribal women dance during a performance in Hyderabad
on the eve of International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples on Aug.
8. Official figures say that from 2001 to 2011 there has been a 63 percent
growth in the number of tribal people in India who identify as Christians.
(Photo by AFP)

ucanews.com reporter, New DelhiIndia April 20, 2016

A grwing trend in India shows tribal people embracing either Christianity
or Islam over Hinduism, said the latest government statistics. However
some see divisive political fodder in the data.
Government figures released in mid-April said the number of Christian
tribal people has increased from 6.3 million in 2001 to 10.03 million in
2011, recording a 63 percent growth.
The number of tribal people who profess Islam has grown 51 percent
from 1.2 million to 1.8 million during the period when the national census
was last conducted.
While the number of tribal people following the Hindu faith is much
larger, their percentage growth has been comparatively less at 39 percent.
The 60 million Hindu tribal people in 2001 grew to 84 million in 2011.

In contrast, total tribal population growth was only 23 percent from
84 million to 104 million for the period. The number of tribal people who
do not belong to any religion or follow animism decreased from 16.4 million
to 7.8 million, indicating increased religious conversions.
"There is nothing wrong" if the data is interpreted to show tribal
people have been converting to Christianity, said Father Ranjit Tigga,
head of the department of tribal studies at New Delhi's Indian Social Institute.

He said the Indian constitution gives all citizens the freedom to profess
and propagate a religion of their choice.
"If the data is correct, it is good news" for the tribal-based church
in the north and northeastern parts of India, said Father Tigga.
Bishop Vincent Barwa of Simdega said that if the data is to be believed,
then it is positive.
"It ill give us a morale boost to work hard for evangelization and
also it gives us the satisfaction that we are heading in the right direction,"
said Bishop Barwa who is the convener of the national bishops' office for
tribal affairs.

Data politics

Father Tigga said that there are elections going on in many states and
releasing the census data now can also be viewed as polarizing.
"Political parties have their own agenda. Some political parties are
trying to divide people in the name of caste and creed," the priest said
without naming any particular party or group.
Religious conversion has been a sensitive issue in Indian politics
for several decades but assumed special significance after the Hindu nationalist
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power two years ago. The party opposes
religious conversion saying it destabilizes the nation and its dominant
Hindu culture.

Muslim leader Arif Khan said he does not believe the government statistics,
which he says has a political agenda behind it.
It is part of the political strategy of the BJP and its affiliated
groups, said Khan.
These Hindu groups are "there to divide people in the name of religion,"
he said.
Khan added that all Indians should be on guard to protect the secular
nature of their country "otherwise religious minorities will become second
class citizens."

Warsaw gets new church after 225 years of waitingWARSAW: Worshippers in the capital of Catholic Poland finally celebrated
the consecration of the city's highest church on Friday -- after a mere
225 years of waiting. The cornerstone of the enormous Temple of Divine
Providence in Warsaw was laid in 1792 but its halting progress since has
mirrored turbulent Polish history. Just a few days after construction started,
Russian troops invaded Poland and Polish independence was soon a distant
memory.

The Temple is meant to be a national and religious symbol for Poland.
The Divine Providence complex comprises a Church of Divine Providence,
a Museum to Pope John Paul II and Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski. It is
worth seeing the basements of the temple with the Pantheon of Great Poles.
Priest Jan Twardowski, President Ryszard Kaczorowski and Minister Krzysztof
Skubiszewski are buried there. There are also relics of Blessed John Paul
II and Jerzy Popieluszko. In spite of the fact that the construction work
continues in the upper part of the temple, masses are held inside.

The project was enthusiastically resurrected after World War I but Hitler's
invading army put a stop to it in 1939. Once again, Catholic Church bosses
tried to revamp the project after Hitler's defeat but this time it was
blocked by the Communist authorities. Only when the Berlin Wall fell could
Poland's religious authorities seek to celebrate their new-found freedom
by starting again.

The perseverance paid off on Friday with an inaugural Mass attended
by Prime Minister Beata Szydlo and President Andrzej Duda. Archbishop Stanislaw
Gadecki cited Poland's beloved former pope John Paul II in calling for
a "responsible" use of their freedom and warning against the "arrogance
of power."

The most recent building work began in 2003 and was mainly financed
by some 50 million euros ($54 million) in private donations from around
100,000 people. However, even after 225 years, the work is not yet over
with some painting unfinished and stained-glass windows not yet fixed.
Seven million euros more are required in donations to complete the job.

The building is not universally popular with its enormous rotunda earning
it the unwelcome nickname of the "giant lemon juicer". The final version
is packed with modern touches such as ultra-fine acoustics in the main
hall, which will also be used for concerts.

The lighting can also be changed to reflect different periods of the
liturgical calendar. On Friday, the church was lit up in the national colours
of red and white, as Poland celebrates the 98th anniversary of its independence.

75 metre high, 67 metre diameter reinforced concrete building has a
4,500 seat capacity and is the largest ecclesiastical structure built in
Poland in several centuries.
Address: 02-972 Warszawa, ul. Ks. Prymasa A. Hlonda 1

Archbishop Bashar Warda said 100,000 people have begun preparations
to return to ancient towns and villages in the Nineveh Plain
Displaced Iraqi Christians are determined to return to their homes
in areas liberated from ISIS, according to the bishop who has led the relief
effort during their period of exile.
Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil described how some of the 100,000
internally displaced people (IDPs) in Kurdish northern Iraq had already
begun preparations to return to the ancient towns and villages in the Nineveh
Plain.
However, the archbishop underlined the difficulty of Christians returning
to nearby Mosul which is still under ISIS control, but he added that many
of the faithful originally from the city still held out the hope of returning
one day.
In interviews with Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, Archbishop
Warda said: People have not yet returned [to Nineveh] because of the operation
to secure Mosul and the [subsequent] reconstruction plans. There is definitely
a will to return after its secure. People have started [their] preparations.
He added: People have been holding prayers and celebrations. Some
priests went to liberated villages  with soldiers. They [villagers and
priests] sang hymns to the victorious Cross.
But the archbishop recognised the many obstacles to be overcome before
the displaced people in Erbil, the capital of Kurdistan, and Dohuk and
elsewhere can realistically return to their homes in Nineveh up to 40 miles
away

Italian priest blames recent spate of earthquakes on
gay civil unionsFather Giovanni Cavalcoli calls seismic shocks 'divine punishment'
An Italian priest has said the recent earthquakes that have shaken
the country, killing hundreds and leaving tens of thousands homeless, were
"divine punishment" for gay civil unions.
Father Giovanni Cavalcoli, a theologian known for his hardline views,
made the comments on October 30, the day central Italy was struck by a
6.6-magnitude quake - the most powerful to hit the country in 36 years
- according to Italian media.
Cavalcoli said on Radio Maria that the seismic shocks were "divine
punishment" for "the offence to the family and the dignity of marriage,
in particular through civil unions".
Legislation allowing gay civil unions in Italy only took effect last
month, making it the last country in Western Europe to legally recognise
same-sex relationships.

The radio station distanced itself from the priests views and late
on Friday the Vatican issued a stinging rebuke, saying the idea of a vengeful
God was "a pagan vision" dating from "the pre-Christian era".
Archbishop Angelo Becciu, number two in the Vatican's powerful Secretariat
of State, said Cavalcoli's comments were "offensive to believers and disgraceful
for non-believers", in remarks reported by Italian media.
Becciu asked for forgiveness from victims of the earthquake and reminded
them they had the "solidarity and support" of Pope Francis.
But Cavalcoli has refused to back down, insisting to another radio
station that earthquakes are indeed caused by "the sins of man" and telling
the Vatican to "read their catechism".
The priest is far from being the first 21st Century Christian leader
to think homosexuality somehow causes natural disasters.
In 2012, during that years presidential election, the right-wing American
chaplain John McTernan linked Hurricane Sandy to gay marriage, Barack Obamas
backing of it, and his Republican rival Mitt Romney being  he claimed
- a big-time homosexual supporter.
A pro-homosexual Mormon along with a pro-abortion/homosexual, Muslim
Brotherhood promoter, Hard Left Fascist are running for president. And
there is no cry of repentance from Gods people! I see this storm as a
warning from the LORD to call His church to repentance.This monster storm
aimed at America is not a coincidence, wrote the founder of Defend and
Proclaim the Faith ministries. What a sign from the holy God of
Israel that American politics is an abomination to Him.
In 2015 the American Christian lobbyist Tony Perkins, president of
the Family Research Council was quoted as saying he agreed that Hurricane
Joaquin, which devastated parts of the Bahamas last year, was a sign of
Gods wrath. God is trying to end us a message, Mr Perkins was quoted
as saying.
In 2016 a flood destroyed Mr Perkins Louisiana home. He told
the Family Research Councils radio station, without any apparent awareness
of the potential irony: This is a flood, I would have to say, of near
Biblical proportions.

In city liberated from Islamic State, Iraqi bishop
celebrates first Mass in over two years

October 31, 2016
Syrian
Catholic Archbishop Youhanna Petros Mouche of Mosul presided at a Mass
in Qaragosh, Iraq, on October 30the first time that Mass had been celebrated
in the city sine the Islamic State seized the region two years ago.

As an international force nears Mosul, Qaragosh was liberated from the
Islamic State last week, and returning Christians found the cathedral of
the Immaculate Conception largely intactalthough pews had been overturned,
graffiti scrawled across the walls, and fires damaged the interior. The
archbishop told the AsiaNews service that the cathedral was a vital symbol
of the people of Qaragosh. If we had not found it as it is nowif it had
really been destroyedthe Qaragosh people would not want to return, he
said.

October 25,
2016The
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has released Ad resurgendum
cum Christo [To Rise with Christ], an instruction on the burial of the
deceased and the conservation of the ashes in the case of cremation.The instruction,
approved by Pope Francis on March 18 and dated August 15, was made public
on October 25. Its twofold purpose is to emphasize the doctrinal and pastoral
reasons for the preference of the burial of the remains of the faithful
and to set out norms pertaining to the conservation of ashes in the case
of cremation.Since the
Church first permitted cremation in 1963, the practice of cremation has
notably increased in many countries, but simultaneously new ideas contrary
to the Churchs faith have also become widespread, the Congregation noted.

Following
the most ancient Christian tradition, the Church insistently recommends
that the bodies of the deceased be buried in cemeteries or other sacred
places, the Congregation stated. In memory of the death, burial and resurrection
of the Lord, the mystery that illumines the Christian meaning of death,
burial is above all the most fitting way to express faith and hope in the
resurrection of the body.

The Congregation
continued:

By
burying the bodies of the faithful, the Church confirms her faith in the
resurrection of the body, and intends to show the great dignity of the
human body as an integral part of the human person whose body forms part
of their identity. She cannot, therefore, condone attitudes or permit rites
that involve erroneous ideas about death, such as considering death as
the definitive annihilation of the person, or the moment of fusion with
Mother Nature or the universe, or as a stage in the cycle of regeneration,
or as the definitive liberation from the prison of the body The burial
of the faithful departed in cemeteries or other sacred places encourages
family members and the whole Christian community to pray for and remember
the dead, while at the same time fostering the veneration of martyrs and
saints.

Turning to cremation,
the Congregation established:

In circumstances
when cremation is chosen because of sanitary, economic or social considerations,
this choice must never violate the explicitly-stated or the reasonably
inferable wishes of the deceased faithful.

The Church continues
to prefer the practice of burying the bodies of the deceased, because this
shows a greater esteem towards the deceased. Nevertheless, cremation is
not prohibited, unless it was chosen for reasons contrary to Christian
doctrine.

When, for legitimate
motives, cremation of the body has been chosen, the ashes of the faithful
must be laid to rest in a sacred place, that is, in a cemetery or, in certain
cases, in a church or an area, which has been set aside for this purpose,
and so dedicated by the competent ecclesial authority.

The conservation
of the ashes of the departed in a domestic residence is not permitted
except in grave and exceptional cases dependent on cultural conditions
of a localized nature with permission of the bishop. Nonetheless, the
ashes may not be divided among various family members and due respect must
be maintained regarding the circumstances of such a conservation.

In order that
every appearance of pantheism, naturalism or nihilism be avoided, it is
not permitted to scatter the ashes of the faithful departed in the air,
on land, at sea or in some other way, nor may they be preserved in mementos,
pieces of jewelry or other objects.

When the deceased
notoriously has requested cremation and the scattering of their ashes for
reasons contrary to the Christian faith, a Christian funeral must be denied
to that person according to the norms of the law, the Congregation concluded.

Pope
Says Nuns Killed in Yemen Are Victims of the Globalization of IndifferenceYemeni
pro-government fighters guard outside a Missionaries of Charity elderly
home March 4 after unidentified gunmen targeted the home in Aden, Yemen.
Four Missionaries of Charity and 10 to 12 other people were killed in the
attack. (CNS photo/EPA)

Gerard O'Connell | Mar 6 2016 - 10:02am

On Sunday Pope Francis expressed his closeness to the Missionaries of
Charity, founded by Mother Teresa of Calcutta, at the killing of four of
their sisters in Aden, the port city of Yemen, on March 4. Departing from
his prepared text, he hailed these sisters who were caring for the elderly
in this war stricken land as the martyrs of our day and said, they were
killed by their attackers, but also by the globalization of indifference.

His words about "the globalization of indifference" are understood to
refer not only to the general indifference to the attacks on Christians
in this region but also to the great indifference of the international
community to the year-long civil war in this impoverished country, which
has brought it to the brink of catastrophe. The previous day he expressed
the hope that "this pointless slaughter will awaken consciences, lead to
a change of heart and inspire all parties to lay down their arms and take
up the path of dialogue."

One of martyred sisters, Sister Anselm, was from India; the other three
were from Africa: Sisters Margherite and Reginette from Rwanda and Sister
Judith from Kenya. Their names do not appear on the front page of
the newspapers, but they gave their blood for the church, Francis stated.

I pray for them and for the other persons killed in the attack, and
for their family members, he added. He prayed that Mother Teresawhom
he will declare a saint in Septembermay accompany into paradise these
here daughters, martyrs of charity, and intercede for peace and the sacred
respect of human life.

The Vatican said he was shocked and profoundly saddened by the murder
of four Missionaries of Charity and 12 other people at a retirement home
for the elderly (80 of whom lived there) run by the sisters in Aden, last
Friday morning. Gunmen entered the building where they lived and went room-to-room,
handcuffing victims before shooting them in the head, killing at least
16 people. Medical sources told Al Jazeera that the other victims included
four local nurses, four security guards and three cleaning staff.

On Saturday, March 5, the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro
Parolin, sent a message on the popes behalf, saying the Holy Father sends
the assurance of his prayers for the dead and his spiritual closeness to
their families and to all affected from this act of senseless and diabolical
violence.
He said the pope prays that this pointless slaughter will awaken consciences,
lead to a change of heart, and inspire all parties to lay down their arms
and take up the path of dialogue.

He issued a strong appeal from Pope Francis for an end to the ongoing
violence in Yemen, saying that in the name of God, he calls upon all parties
in the present conflict to renounce violence, and to renew their commitment
to the people of Yemen, particularly those most in need, whom the Sisters
and their helpers sought to serve.
He concluded by saying the pope invokes Gods blessing upon everyone
suffering from this violence, and in a special ways he extends to the Missionaries
of Charity his prayerful sympathy and solidarity.

The killing of these four sisters brings to a total of seven the number
of Missionaries of Charity who have died as martyrs in this land, on the
southern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, over the past two decades. In
1998, three other sistersZelia and Aletta (India) and Michael (the Philippines)were
killed at Hodeida, another city in this war-torn land where Catholics count
for a mere 3,000 faithful (migrant workers) in a population of some 25
million people. In 1973, Mother Teresa was invited to open a mission in
the country by the then government of North Yemen. She agreed but asked
that they could also have priests. Her request was granted and the Salesian
order provided the priests, and five of them are living in the country
today.

One of the priests, the only Catholic priest in Aden, Fr. Thomas Uzhunnali,
from Kerala, India, was living with the sisters in this building at the
time of the attack, since his parish residence was destroyed last September.
He was praying in the chapel of the retirement home when the killers arrived,
and was taken away by them, according to the mother superior of the community
of Missionaries of Charity in Aden who, press reports say, managed to hide
and so avoided being killed in the attack. It is not known what happened
to him.

The Holy See and the Republic of the Yemen, an Islamic state, established
diplomatic relations in October 1998, and it was hoped then that this would
guarantee some protection to the tiny Christian community there and make
it possible for them to carry out their mission, such as that done by the
Missionaries of Charity in caring for the elderly and the disabled. In
the civil war, however, even the poorest and those who serve them have
little protection.

In 2011 Yemen experienced the Arab Spring protests, along with Egypt,
Tunisia, Bahrain, Libya and Syria. Worried that these could spill out of
control or even beyond its borders, the BBC reports that Yemen's Gulf Arab
neighbors brokered a deal that saw longstanding President Ali Abdullah
Saleh deposed and replaced by President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi.

Mr. Saleh remained in the country, however, and in 2014, threw his support
behind a rebellion by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, enabling them to
march almost unopposed into the capital, Sanaa. By January 2015, the U.N.-recognized
President Hadi had lost power and fled into exile in Saudi Arabia. By March
2015, the Shiite rebels had taken over the whole of western Yemen, where
the bulk of the population is concentrated.

According to the BBC, the Saudis and their Gulf Arab allies saw this
as an Iranian takeover, and fearing that Iran was about to seize control
of the port city of Aden and the strategic entrance to the Red Sea, through
which thousands of ships pass each year, they formed a nine-nation coalition.
In March 2015, the Saudis began a massive campaign of airstrikes, targeting
both the rebels and the units loyal to Mr. Saleh, but by December 2015
the Shiite Houthis still remained firmly embedded in the capital and much
of the north.

Today, the Shiite Houthi rebels control the northern region but are
being hit hard by Saudi-led airstrikes. The Saudi-backed internationally-recognized
government controls the southern region, but there is great instability
here too. Yemen effectively has two capitalsSanaa and Adenas the country
continues to be trapped in a war that neither side seems to be winning.
Aden descended into lawlessness after the Saudi-led coalition recaptured
this key city from the Shiite rebels last summer, but both Al Qaida and
the Islamic State are now active there.

At the end of last year, the BBC reported that Yemens basic infrastructure
was shattered, its economy was grinding to a halt, and at least 80 percent
of the population was dependent on food aid. Peace talks opened in Switzerland
last December but so far have not managed to end this civil conflict in
which Saudi Arabia and Iran are deeply engaged.

Already the poorest country in the Arab world, with ever-decreasing
oil and water reserves, Yemen is now facing catastrophe according to the
United Nations: 21.2 million people need some form of humanitarian assistance,
around 6,000 people have been killed, and 2.4 million people have been
displaced from their homes. Human rights organizations say both sides are
responsible for atrocities in this impoverished but strategically important
land where the tussle for power has serious implications for the region
and the security of the West. The U.N. Security Council needs to intervene,
but that is not happening. The globalization of indifference still reigns
supreme, and people die.

The drama of the persecution of Christians in Nigeria

The fruit of the blood of the martyrs: the more Christians Boko Haram
kills more people are baptized
Google's translation from Spanish

Boko
Haram jihadists were already strong in Nigeria ... now they open a section
in Cameroon, with local youth in a country before without extremists

Beatriz de la Rosa / Actuall
March 6, 2016

Nigeria has become the country where more Christians have died persecuted
for their faith.

Between 9,000 and 11,000 Christians have been killed for their beliefs,
a large number of houses have been destroyed, including 13,000 churches
that have either reduced to ashes or have closed. More than one million
Christians have been forced to leave their homes to find a safe place to
live. It is explained in the report of the organization Open Doors
International along with the Christian Association of Nigeria in the report
'Crushed but not defeated' in revealing the impact it has had violence
against church in northern Nigeria.

Nigeria is officially a secular country with a current constitution
which guarantees freedom of thought, conscience and religion. In southern
Nigeria there is economic stability, freedom of expression and peace on
the current situation. Instead, the Northern cities are predominantly Muslim
and in the last 15 years several radical groups have emerged with the sole
desire to impose the Caliphate and impose Sharia (Islamic law). In the
north the Christian population has suffered from marginalization and violence
systematically. Murders, rapes marginalization and discrimination has led
to the near extinction of Christians in the north of the country.

Terrorist organizations as Boko Haram or Hausa's population, a Muslim
sector of great influence in Nigeria, have attacked the large Christian
minority mercilessly. The persecution has led to the near extinction of
Christians in some areas of the north. They were murdered in the streets,
and women and girls living in constant danger of being kidnapped, raped
and murdered. Many of them are given as slaves to the military. In addition
Islamists throw Christian families from their homes and prevent them from
returning. Christians, in short, can not have their own business or go
to college or university. However, Christians survive.

In northern Nigeria have surfaced, they have remained strong in their
beliefs and have positively impacted many Muslims. Open Doors has interviewed
a large number of Christians who have remained in the area despite the
fear and threats. Their testimonies reflect that reality is very different.
Christians have grown by 31% since 2014, one of the worst years of persecution
by Boko Haram, in fact churches have grown by 66% in both members and visitors.
Christians have claimed that their spiritual and personal relationship
with God has grown significantly since the persecution became more noticeable.
They say they have now understood what the love of neighbor and the "enemy"
who have stopped being afraid and started to pray for them. Prayer, in
fact, has increased by 65%.

One respondent stated: "Violence has reaffirmed my faith in God, the
few that we have been continuing to grow spiritually, we will not hate
our executioners, hatred just brings more hatred, Islam needs the love
of Christianity" assured . Nigerian Christians have understood, says Open
Doors, which in Nigeria both religions live together. "We need to coexist,
both north and south formed a single country, the tension must be reduced
, " said another witness. Despite the trauma living in Nigeria, Christians
only demanding one thing: "We want our right to freedom of speech recognition,
we do not want revenge, only hatred is over and we can live in communion
with Islam , " says one interviewed by the association.

The courage of Nigerian Christians has impacted the Muslim society.
Despite not being able to openly discuss their beliefs in Africa are more
Christians than Muslims, they can no longer contain the conversion to Christianity,
why resort to violence. According to sociologist Massimo Introvigne,
founder of CESNUR, in 1900 a population of 10 million Christians in Africa
was estimated, but today the sociologist estimated 500 million.

By Elise Harris
Vatican City, Feb 27, 2016 / 09:23 am (CNA).- Professor Saeed Khan,
an expert in Islam, has said that mercy is central to the Muslim faith
 a mercy with roots in Catholicism and which is opposed to the misguided,
fundamentalist interpretations of some extremist groups.

Mercy is the core of Islam, Saeed Khan told CNA in a Feb. 25 interview,
adding that the Muslim concept of mercy is actually an expansion of Catholic
notions of mercy. While the conventional understanding of mercy is typically
showing compassion and forgiveness for those in need, in Islam mercy
also means a blessing and a gift, he said. The concept of mercy as both
a blessing and a gift shows Gods omniscience and omnipotence in the sense
that mercy is proactively given, rather than simply reactively received
by someone seeking forgiveness, Khan explained. Because of this, creation
itself is a mercy to mankind, he said, adding that the various prophets
throughout history, including, in his words, Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac,
Ishmael, Jesus and Mohamed, are also mercies on mankind because they have
been the ones to transmit and convey the divine message.

Khan is a lecturer for Detroit-based Wayne State Universitys Department
of Near East and Asian Studies. He teaches courses on Islamic and Middle
East History, Islamic Civilizations and the History of Islamic Political
Thought. He was present in Rome as a speaker for a Feb. 25-26 conference
organized by the Pontifical Council Cor Unum in celebration of the 10th
anniversary of the publication of retired pontiff Benedict XVIs first
encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, meaning God is love.

The document was published Dec. 25, 2005, just eight months after his
election as Bishop of Rome. Conference participants came from all over
the world to discuss the encyclical from theological and charitable perspectives,
as well as the perspective of other religions such as Judaism and Islam.
Khan himself spoke on the first day of the conference, offering participants
his perspective on the Muslim understanding of mercy. In his comments to
CNA, Khan said the Islamic concept of Gods closeness to humanity is that
he is closer to you than your own jugular vein.- This shows that a very
intimate relationship that exists which can only be infused by love, he
said. So when Pope Benedict XVI mentioned in his encyclical that the primacy
of love and how God then manifests that love then to his creation that
is also an Islamic concept. Khan said mercy is also closely linked to
the concept of charity. In Islam, charity is a devise of mercy that goes
beyond providing material needs such as food and clothing, but reaches
the spiritual level, he said.

As an example, he pointed to a famous saying of the Prophet Mohamed
that even a smile is a form of charity since it forms a human connection.
This is especially true, he said, at a time when humanity is becoming increasingly
more impersonal, despite advancements in technology and communications.
However, while mercy is the core of Islam, there is tragically a difference
between Islam as an ideal and Islam as it is applied and as it is practiced
by people, Khan said, noting that the same can be said of any religion.
Unfortunately there are people who will invoke the name of Islam to all
kinds of unspeakable and egregious things, he said. Those may claim to
be believers who act out in such vengeful and violent ways, but again,
it is such an anomaly and such an aberration from the divine message that
its very difficult to be able to say with a certain straight face that
this is really what God intended.

The professor said that instead, to get to the heart of true Islam one
has to go back to the sources of in order to see the real divine message
and understand what God is really mandating. Mercy, Khan said, is
so embedded in Islam that in several places within the Quran it says and
establish regular prayer and charity. He noted how two of the 99 attributes
Muslims recognize in God are all-merciful and ever-merciful. These
phrases, he added, are invoked at least 17 different times during the five
daily prayers Muslims recite throughout the day. The terms are also
invoked by Muslims before they embark on any act or deed, so therefore
the concept of an all-merciful God also exists in Islam, the professor
explained.

When it comes to verses in the Quran supporting vengeance and violence
such as death by the sword, Khan said that Islam is a totalistic religion
which also provides instructions on what to do in a time of war, persecution
or when ones life is threatened. He acknowledged that there are sanctions
for war and for committing physical violence in the Quran, but said they
are a last resort, and are heavily regulated to societies that would
otherwise be very unregulated, very anarchic, even more brutal than they
already are. Turning to the current Jubilee of Mercy, the professor touched
on Pope Francis numerous affirmations that the Holy Year isnt just for
Catholics, but for people of all religions, including our Muslim brothers.

When asked how Muslims can participate in the Jubilee, Khan said that
one of the most important things to remember is that its not just God
who is merciful, but we who are his instruments on earth have an obligation
as well as the opportunity to express that kind mercy. He noted how the
Quran speaks to two different audiences, namely, believers and non-believers,
and that mercy is something that can and should be commonly expressed It
is incumbent on Muslims to understand that when it comes to mercy, this
is something that then binds both believers and all of humanity in the
fact that mercy can be displayed, and should be displayed, to everyone,
he said.

Eucharistic Mercy for Inner Healing

February 24, 2016. Kathleen Beckman
A Catholic who seeks inner healing is similar to the traveler on a
journey. The Holy Spirit helps him to become aware of his heart wound and
mercifully sets him on the road of encounter with Jesus. The healing journey
is comparable to the situation of the disciples on the road to Emmaus.

On the day of Christs Resurrection, two men were walking to the village
of Emmaus. They were discussing all the recent events. They must have been
perplexed, their hopes dashed. What were they to make of everything now
that Jesus had been crucified? Failure? Then Jesus drew close to them and
began to walk and talk with them.

But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them,
What is this conversation which you are holding with each other as you
walk? And they stood still, looking sad. So they drew near to the village
to which they were going. He appeared to be going further, but they constrained
him, saying, Stay with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is now
far spent. So he went in to stay with them. When he was at table with
them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.
And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished out
of their sight. They said to each other, Did not our hearts burn within
us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?
And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem; and . . . told
what had happened on the road and how he was known to them in the breaking
of the bread. (Luke 24:1317, 2835)

The journey to Eucharistic healing includes many of the emotions experienced
by the disciples on the road to Emmaus. One might be perplexed by a circumstance
or become profoundly disappointed that what once looked so promising now
is ending in failure. There is a breach that wounds the heart. Jesus draws
near, but our eyes are kept from recognizing Him. We are in a state of
spiritual blindness and deafness. Our understanding is darkened for a time.

Providence will arrange a surprising encounter in which we can see again.
Our eyes will be opened in the breaking of the bread. Our heart will begin
to burn with love again. The Eucharist rekindles the fire of love to cauterize
the bleeding wound. Jesus turns even painful experiences into something
beautifulin His perfect time. Bitterness fades. Trust is possible again.
Christ absorbs the pain. A new journey begins. [I]f any one is in Christ,
he is a new creation; the old has passed away; behold, the new has come
(2 Cor. 5:17).

Eucharistic MercyIn ways seen and unseen the worthy reception of the Eucharist heals
sin sickness. I am one who received inner healing through the sacraments
of the Church, especially through my daily Eucharistic life. The need began
when the pain of two traumas in my family deeply wounded my heart. By the
grace of God I came to understand that because of these two traumas, I
lost clarity about my true identity. Once secure as a child of God and
experiencing only the love of family and friends into my mid-thirties,
two traumas, two years apart, caused me to doubt others and myself. Because
of cruel words and deeds, a great spiritual battle ensued between the true
and false self. In prayer, an inspiration came, Take care to heal so that
you do not project your wounds upon my Body, the Church. Jesus in the
Eucharist became my Divine Physician. At daily Mass and Adoration, divine
mercy penetrated my heart wounds, curing the lies of rejection and healing
the traumatic memories. Several priests also helped; one personally guided
me through the life-changing Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola
weekly for a year. I learned to listen, to recognize the still small voice
of the Lord, and to know the movements of my own heartdesolation, consolation,
discernment, etc.

Prudence requires that we not over spiritualize inner healing, since
Christ also heals communally with health professionals. The Catholic Medical
Association is a grounded apostolate that supports the healing ministry
of the Church. The Churchs healing, deliverance, and exorcism ministry
is another way in which Christ heals, and we most often consult with medical
professionals. It is not surprising that divine mercy works beautifully
through a variety of ways for the care of the beloved. God desires us to
be whole and holy.

To Know Yourself in the Gaze of Eucharistic LoveFr. Jim McManuss Catholic perspective on healing through forgiveness,
and the need for healthy self-esteem for a life of happiness offers good
insights. God wills to bring us to a place of joyful, grateful self-acceptance.
Fr. McManus calls this a spirituality of true self-esteem wherein we know
our true identity as precious children of God. Sometimes we live in the
house of the destructive word as Fr. Mc Manus terms it. Destructive words
impoverish life; hold us back. Constructive words affirm and encourage
even when correcting. Healing starts when we move from the house of the
destructive word to the house of the constructive word. There are so many
opportunities to build one another up spiritually and emotionally; too
often we do the exact opposite. Other people or the devil, or both, tell
us lies about ourselves but Abba Father tells us the truth. Nothing separates
us from the love of God. Is Christ enough for you?

Having prayed with, listened to, and counseled countless people at international
retreats, I have found a common malady in which people struggle with their
identity stemming from what they do or have. This is contrary to the
Catholic perspective of knowing that we are temples of the Holy Spirit
(cf. 1 Cor. 6:19). The Eucharist beautifies Gods temple.

Fr. McManus understands the separation of psychology and theology, but
he sees a synthesis in which our psychological structures relate to our
spiritual selves. This challenges core beliefs about the question Who
am I? Jesus seeks to bring our self-image into alignment with the truth
of divine love. The Eucharist can affect this because by it we are incorporated
into Incarnate Truth. When we gaze at the Eucharist in Adoration, Christ
mirrors our dignity to us and heals our self-esteem according to the biblical
truth of His love.

Eucharistic Healing, Resurrection, the Holy Spirits workIn the Eucharist we have direct physical contact with Jesus. This is
an important distinction. In the Gospel accounts of people being healed,
we discover the fact that everyone who touched Jesus was healed. [T]hey
. . . brought to him all that were sick, and begged him that they might
only touch the fringe of his garment; and as many as touched it were made
well (Matt. 14:3536). When we receive the Eucharist, we are touching
Jesus, and our communion is physical and spiritual. We touch the Lord as
contrite sinners in need of healing medicine and receive Him worthily faithful
according to the Churchs norms. The sacraments of Confession and Holy
Communion are intersecting rivers of divine mercy for healing.

The Eucharist bridges the gap between fallen humanity and redeemed humanity
and prepares us for our glorified humanity in Christs second coming. We
are in a process of deification through the Eucharistic life. This process
is one of healing from fallen nature (sin) to redeemed nature (sanctity)
to glorified nature (transforming union with God: beatific vision). The
Holy Spirit is the key agent in the process of transformation in Christ,
wherein we are healed. St. Paul often speaks of the Holy Spirit, who mercifully
penetrates the areas of our personality that would hold us captive. It
is the Holy Spirit who breaks open the mysteries of Gods mercy and empowers
us to be free. The Holy Spirit brings us to an abiding encounter with Christ
in the Eucharist, in which we are grafted like branches onto the vine (cf.
John 15:4). This communion is by no means temporary. The physical presence
of Christ in the Eucharist is vital because our physicality, our bodies
matter as temples of the Holy Spirit (cf. 1 Cor. 6:19).

Healing is resurrection. What was dead is brought to life, what was
diseased is restored to health, what was infected is made clean again,
what was dormant is awakened. The Eucharist affects your resurrection.
Fr. Lawrence Lovasik teaches,

Holy Communion establishes between Jesus Christ and us not merely spiritual
contact but physical contact as well through the species of bread. The
resurrection of the body can be traced from this physical contact with
Christ. The resurrected bodies of those who have worthily received the
Eucharist during their lifetime will be more strikingly resplendent because
of their frequent contact, during life, with the risen Body of their Lord.

Prayer to Become a Living MonstranceLord Jesus, please fashion me into a living Eucharistic monstrance
so that I may be a vessel of mercy carrying your love to others. Through
our Eucharistic incorporation, grant that I may be a child of the light,
salt of the earth, bread for the hungry, water for the thirsty, new wine,
and healing oil for others. May people see You in my servants heart, You
in the light of my eyes, in the warmth of my heart, in the works of my
hands, in the words of my voice, in the incense of my prayer, in the lightness
of my laughter, in the glistening of my tears, in the lowliness of your
creature. Hide me, I pray, in the gilded monstrance of Your merciful heart
so that I will be a living monstrance radiating healing rays of mercy.

Joint Declaration From Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill

May
the Blessed Virgin Mary, through her intercession, inspire fraternity in
all those who venerate her, so that they may be reunited, in Gods own
time, in the peace and harmony of the one people of God, for the glory
of the Most Holy and indivisible Trinity!

February 12, 2016ZENIT

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father and
the fellowship of the holy Spirit be with all of you (2 Cor 13:13).

1. By God the Fathers will, from which all gifts come, in the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the help of the Holy Spirit Consolator,
we, Pope Francis and Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, have met
today in Havana. We give thanks to God, glorified in the Trinity, for this
meeting, the first in history.
It is with joy that we have met like brothers in the Christian
faith who encounter one another to speak face to face (2Jn12), from heart
to heart, to discuss the mutual relations between the Churches, the crucial
problems of our faithful, and the outlook for the progress of human civilization.

2. Our fraternal meeting has taken place in Cuba, at the crossroads
of North and South, East and West. It is from this island, the symbol of
the hopes of the New World and the dramatic events of the history of
the twentieth century, that we address our words to all the peoples of
Latin America and of the other continents.
It is a source of joy that the Christian faith is growing here
in a dynamic way. The powerful religious potential of Latin America, its
centuriesold Christian tradition, grounded in the personal experience
of millions of people, are the pledge of a great future for this region.

3. By meeting far from the longstanding disputes of the Old World,
we experience with a particular sense of urgency the need for the shared
labour of Catholics and Orthodox, who are called, with gentleness and respect,
to give an explanation to the world of the hope in us (cf.1Pet3:15).

4. We thank God for the gifts received from the coming into the world
of His only Son. We share the same spiritual Tradition of the first millennium
of Christianity. The witnesses of this Tradition are the Most Holy Mother
of God, the Virgin Mary, and the saints we venerate. Among them are innumerable
martyrs who have given witness to their faithfulness to Christ and have
become the seed of Christians.

5. Notwithstanding this shared Tradition of the first ten centuries,
for nearly one thousand years Catholics and Orthodox have been deprived
of communion in the Eucharist. We have been divided by wounds caused by
old and recent conflicts, by differences inherited from our ancestors,
in the understanding and expression of our faith in God, one in three Persons
 Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We are pained by the loss of unity, the
outcome of human weakness and of sin, which has occurred despite the priestly
prayer of Christ the Saviour: So that they may all be one, as you, Father,
are in me and I in you so that they may be one, as we are one (Jn17:21).

6. Mindful of the permanence of many obstacles, it is our hope that
our meeting may contribute to the reestablishment of this unity willed
by God, for which Christ prayed. May our meeting inspire Christians throughout
the world to pray to the Lord with renewed fervour for the full unity of
all His disciples. In a world which yearns not only for our words but also
for tangible gestures, may this meeting be a sign of hope for all people
of goodwill!

7. In our determination to undertake all that is necessary to overcome
the historical divergences we have inherited, we wish to combine our efforts
to give witness to the Gospel of Christ and to the shared heritage of the
Church of the first millennium, responding together to the challenges of
the contemporary world. Orthodox and Catholics must learn to give unanimously
witness in those spheres in which this is possible and necessary. Human
civilization has entered into a period of epochal change. Our Christian
conscience and our pastoral responsibility compel us not to remain passive
in the face of challenges requiring a shared response.

8. Our gaze must firstly turn to those regions of the world where Christians
are victims of persecution. In many countries of the Middle East and North
Africa whole families, villages and cities of our brothers and sisters
in Christ are being completely exterminated. Their churches are being barbarously
ravaged and looted, their sacred objects profaned, their monuments destroyed.
It is with pain that we call to mind the situation in Syria, Iraq and other
countries of the Middle East, and the massive exodus of Christians from
the land in which our faith was first disseminated and in which they have
lived since the time of the Apostles, together with other religious communities.

9. We call upon the international community to act urgently in order
to prevent the further expulsion of Christians from the Middle East. In
raising our voice in defence of persecuted Christians, we wish to express
our compassion for the suffering experienced by the faithful of other religious
traditions who have also become victims of civil war, chaos and terrorist
violence.

10. Thousands of victims have already been claimed in the violence in
Syria and Iraq, which has left many other millions without a home or means
of sustenance. We urge the international community to seek an end to the
violence and terrorism and, at the same time, to contribute through dialogue
to a swift return to civil peace. Largescale humanitarian aid must be
assured to the afflicted populations and to the many refugees seeking safety
in neighbouring lands.
We call upon all those whose influence can be brought to bear
upon the destiny of those kidnapped, including the Metropolitans of Aleppo,
Paul and John Ibrahim, who were taken in April 2013, to make every effort
to ensure their prompt liberation.

11. We lift our prayers to Christ, the Saviour of the world, asking
for the return of peace in the Middle East, the fruit of justice (Is32:17),
so that fraternal coexistence among the various populations, Churches
and religions may be strengthened, enabling refugees to return to their
homes, wounds to be healed, and the souls of the slain innocent to rest
in peace.
We address, in a fervent appeal, all the parts that may be involved
in the conflicts to demonstrate good will and to take part in the negotiating
table. At the same time, the international community must undertake every
possible effort to end terrorism through common, joint and coordinated
action. We call on all the countries involved in the struggle against terrorism
to responsible and prudent action. We exhort all Christians and all believers
of God to pray fervently to the providential Creator of the world to protect
His creation from destruction and not permit a new world war. In order
to ensure a solid and enduring peace, specific efforts must be undertaken
to rediscover the common values uniting us, based on the Gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ.

12. We bow before the martyrdom of those who, at the cost of their own
lives, have given witness to the truth of the Gospel, preferring death
to the denial of Christ. We believe that these martyrs of our times, who
belong to various Churches but who are united by their shared suffering,
are a pledge of the unity of Christians. It is to you who suffer for Christs
sake that the word of the Apostle is directed: Beloved rejoice to the
extent that you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that when his glory
is revealed you may also rejoice exultantly (1Pet4:1213).

13. Interreligious dialogue is indispensable in our disturbing times.
Differences in the understanding of religious truths must not impede people
of different faiths to live in peace and harmony. In our current context,
religious leaders have the particular responsibility to educate their faithful
in a spirit which is respectful of the convictions of those belonging to
other religious traditions. Attempts to justify criminal acts with religious
slogans are altogether unacceptable. No crime may be committed in Gods
name, since God is not the God of disorder but of peace (1Cor14:33).

14. In affirming the foremost value of religious freedom, we give thanks
to God for the current unprecedented renewal of the Christian faith in
Russia, as well as in many other countries of Eastern Europe, formerly
dominated for decades by atheist regimes. Today, the chains of militant
atheism have been broken and in many places Christians can now freely confess
their faith. Thousands of new churches have been built over the last quarter
of a century, as well as hundreds of monasteries and theological institutions.
Christian communities undertake notable works in the fields of charitable
aid and social development, providing diversified forms of assistance to
the needy. Orthodox and Catholics often work side by side. Giving witness
to the values of the Gospel they attest to the existence of the shared
spiritual foundations of human coexistence.

15. At the same time, we are concerned about the situation in many countries
in which Christians are increasingly confronted by restrictions to religious
freedom, to the right to witness to ones convictions and to live in conformity
with them. In particular, we observe that the transformation of some countries
into secularized societies, estranged from all reference to God and to
His truth, constitutes a grave threat to religious freedom. It is a source
of concern for us that there is a current curtailment of the rights of
Christians, if not their outright discrimination, when certain political
forces, guided by an often very aggressive secularist ideology, seek to
relegate them to the margins of public life.

16. The process of European integration, which began after centuries
of bloodsoaked conflicts, was welcomed by many with hope, as a guarantee
of peace and security. Nonetheless, we invite vigilance against an integration
that is devoid of respect for religious identities. While remaining open
to the contribution of other religions to our civilization, it is our conviction
that Europe must remain faithful to its Christian roots. We call upon Christians
of Eastern and Western Europe to unite in their shared witness to Christ
and the Gospel, so that Europe may preserve its soul, shaped by two thousand
years of Christian tradition.

17. Our gaze is also directed to those facing serious difficulties,
who live in extreme need and poverty while the material wealth of humanity
increases. We cannot remain indifferent to the destinies of millions of
migrants and refugees knocking on the doors of wealthy nations. The unrelenting
consumerism of some more developed countries is gradually depleting the
resources of our planet. The growing inequality in the distribution of
material goods increases the feeling of the injustice of the international
order that has emerged.

18. The Christian churches are called to defend the demands of justice,
the respect for peoples traditions, and an authentic solidarity towards
all those who suffer. We Christians cannot forget that God chose the foolish
of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the lowly and despised of
the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who
are something, that no human being might boast before God (1Cor1:2729).

19. The family is the natural centre of human life and society. We are
concerned about the crisis in the family in many countries. Orthodox and
Catholics share the same conception of the family, and are called to witness
that it is a path of holiness, testifying to the faithfulness of the spouses
in their mutual interaction, to their openness to the procreation and rearing
of their children, to solidarity between the generations and to respect
for the weakest.

20. The family is based on marriage, an act of freely given and faithful
love between a man and a woman. It is love that seals their union and teaches
them to accept one another as a gift. Marriage is a school of love and
faithfulness. We regret that other forms of cohabitation have been placed
on the same level as this union, while the concept, consecrated in the
biblical tradition, of paternity and maternity as the distinct vocation
of man and woman in marriage is being banished from the public conscience.

21. We call on all to respect the inalienable right to life. Millions
are denied the very right to be born into the world. The blood of the unborn
cries out to God (cf.Gen4:10).
The emergence of so-called euthanasia leads elderly people and
the disabled begin to feel that they are a burden on their families and
on society in general.

We are also concerned about the development of biomedical reproduction
technology, as the manipulation of human life represents an attack on the
foundations of human existence, created in the image of God. We believe
that it is our duty to recall the immutability of Christian moral principles,
based on respect for the dignity of the individual called into being according
to the Creators plan.

22. Today, in a particular way, we address young Christians. You, young
people, have the task of not hiding your talent in the ground (cf. Mt25:25),
but of using all the abilities God has given you to confirm Christs truth
in the world, incarnating in your own lives the evangelical commandments
of the love of God and of ones neighbour. Do not be afraid of going against
the current, defending Gods truth, to which contemporary secular norms
are often far from conforming.

23. God loves each of you and expects you to be His disciples and apostles.
Be the light of the world so that those around you may see your good deeds
and glorify your heavenly Father (cf. Mt5:14,16). Raise your children in
the Christian faith, transmitting to them the pearl of great price that
is the faith (cf. Mt13:46) you have received from your parents and forbears.
Remember that you have been purchased at a great price (1Cor6:20), at
the cost of the death on the cross of the ManGod Jesus Christ.

24. Orthodox and Catholics are united not only by the shared Tradition
of the Church of the first millennium, but also by the mission to preach
the Gospel of Christ in the world today. This mission entails mutual respect
for members of the Christian communities and excludes any form of proselytism.
We are not competitors but brothers, and this concept must guide
all our mutual actions as well as those directed to the outside world.
We urge Catholics and Orthodox in all countries to learn to live together
in peace and love, and to be in harmony with one another (Rm15:5). Consequently,
it cannot be accepted that disloyal means be used to incite believers to
pass from one Church to another, denying them their religious freedom and
their traditions. We are called upon to put into practice the precept of
the apostle Paul: Thus I aspire to proclaim the gospel not where Christ
has already been named, so that I do not build on anothers foundation
(Rm15:20).

25. It is our hope that our meeting may also contribute to reconciliation
wherever tensions exist between Greek Catholics and Orthodox. It is today
clear that the past method of uniatism, understood as the union of one
community to the other, separating it from its Church, is not the way to
reestablish unity. Nonetheless, the ecclesial communities which emerged
in these historical circumstances have the right to exist and to undertake
all that is necessary to meet the spiritual needs of their faithful, while
seeking to live in peace with their neighbours. Orthodox and Greek Catholics
are in need of reconciliation and of mutually acceptable forms of coexistence.

26. We deplore the hostility in Ukraine that has already caused many
victims, inflicted innumerable wounds on peaceful inhabitants and thrown
society into a deep economic and humanitarian crisis. We invite all the
parts involved in the conflict to prudence, to social solidarity and to
action aimed at constructing peace. We invite our Churches in Ukraine to
work towards social harmony, to refrain from taking part in the confrontation,
and to not support any further development of the conflict.

27. It is our hope that the schism between the Orthodox faithful in
Ukraine may be overcome through existing canonical norms, that all the
Orthodox Christians of Ukraine may live in peace and harmony, and that
the Catholic communities in the country may contribute to this, in such
a way that our Christian brotherhood may become increasingly evident.

28. In the contemporary world, which is both multiform yet united by
a shared destiny, Catholics and Orthodox are called to work together fraternally
in proclaiming the Good News of salvation, to testify together to the moral
dignity and authentic freedom of the person, so that the world may believe
(Jn17:21). This world, in which the spiritual pillars of human existence
are progressively disappearing, awaits from us a compelling Christian witness
in all spheres of personal and social life. Much of the future of humanity
will depend on our capacity to give shared witness to the Spirit of truth
in these difficult times.

29. May our bold witness to Gods truth and to the Good News of salvation
be sustained by the ManGod Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, who strengthens
us with the unfailing promise: Do not be afraid any longer, little flock,
for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom (Lk12:32)!
Christ is the wellspring of joy and hope. Faith in Him transfigures
human life, fills it with meaning. This is the conviction borne of the
experience of all those to whom Peter refers in his words: Once you were
no people but now you are Gods people; you had not received mercy
but now you have received mercy (1Pet2:10).

30. With gracefilled gratitude for the gift of mutual understanding
manifested during our meeting, let us with hope turn to the Most Holy Mother
of God, invoking her with the words of this ancient prayer: We seek refuge
under the protection of your mercy, Holy Mother of God. May the Blessed
Virgin Mary, through her intercession, inspire fraternity in all those
who venerate her, so that they may be reunited, in Gods own time, in the
peace and harmony of the one people of God, for the glory of the Most Holy
and indivisible Trinity!

Francis Bishop of Rome
Pope of the Catholic Church Kirill Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia

12 February 2016, Havana (Cuba)

Massive crowd in Rome protests proposal to recognize
same-sex unions

Catholic World News
FamilyDayRoma
February 01, 2016

An enormous crowd gathered at the Circus Maximus in Rome on January
31 to protest plans for the legal recognition of same-sex unions in Italy.

The size of the crowd for the Family Day demonstration was a matter
of keen debate among different news outlets. Some referred to thousands
of demonstrations, while others said tens of thousands; the events organizers
claimed that over 1 million people had attended. Although there were no
reliable statistics on the crowd size, at least 1,500 buses had been chartered
for the occasion, with countless other participants arriving by car, foot,
or public transportation.

Speakers at the Family Day rally concentrated on the argument that homosexual
individuals already have legal rights, and a move toward acceptance of
their unions would endanger the principle that every child should have
a mother and a father.

Legislation to register civil unions will be taken up for debate in
the Italian Senate on February 2. Although the proposed legislation stops
well short of recognizing same-sex marraige, as other European nations
have done, popular resistance in Italy has been fierce. Massimo Gandolfini,
one of the main organizers of the Sunday rally, remarked: Italy is one
of the few Western countries that is still resisting this deviation.

The Family Day rally was largely organized by Catholic lay groups. The
Italian bishops conferencewhich in past years has led the opposition
to acceptance of homosexual unionsdid not openly support the event. Cardinal
Angelo Bagnaso of Genoa, the president of the episcopal conference, made
a strong statement of support for male-female marriage last week; but the
secretary-general of the conference, Bishop Nuncio Galantino, has been
perceived as open to the new legislation. Pope Francis has avoided public
comment on the issue.

In June 2015, the Islamic charitable association Maq?sid promoted the
drafting of the Beirut Declaration, a document that aims to counter religious
violence and promote an enlightened interpretation of Islamic culture.
One of the contributors condemns the subversive rhetoric used by extremists
against both Christians and Muslims. His position is born out of a conciliatory
interpretation of Islam, and the belief that Muslims need Christians (and
vice versa) in order to survive.

The concerns currently gripping Eastern Christians are not unfounded.
It is a reaction to the tragic events that have shaken many Arab countries,
and in which the victims were Christians. People who have been killed for
their faith, forced to emigrate, taken prisoner and deprived of their places
of worship, churches and monasteries.

This wave of religious extremism, characterised by violence and dominion
over vast areas (especially in Iraq and Syria), but above all by its subversive,
Takfiri slogans, has not been met by an Islamic counterwave capable of
a robust legal and practical response. This has increased among Christians
the feelings of frustration and fear for their future and destiny. The
resulting mass emigrations represent an unprecedented phenomenon in the
history of modern Muslim-Christian relations.

Since the middle of the 20th century, the percentage of Christians living
in Arab countries has fallen by more than half, and the bleeding is likely
to increase if subversive extremism continues to grow. Christians have
many reasons to be concerned. The most important of these is linked to
certain religious notions espoused by extremist Islamic movements, which
they interpret as central tenets of the Islamic faith, but which, in point
of fact, are nothing of the sort.

Dhimma vs. citizenshipSome extremist Islamic movements deny the faith of Christians and Jews
on the basis of incorrect understanding of two Quranic verses: Indeed,
the religion in the sight of Allah is Islam (3:19) and whoever desires
a religion other than Islam shall not be accepted by God (3:85). This
is the consequence of an exclusivist vision of faith in God, which is limited
solely to the message of Muhammad. In truth, this misunderstanding leads
these Islamic movements away from the spirit of Islam and the essence of
the Quranic text. In fact, the meaning of Islam is submission to the will
of the one true God. In light of this clarification, it can be seen that
being a Muslim does not mean believing exclusively in what God revealed
to Muhammad. The essence of Islam is to believe in all Gods prophets and
messengers, from Abraham to Muhammad, and all the heavenly scriptures that
were revealed to them, insofar as these writings were inspired by the Word
of God, and especially the Gospel and the Torah, which, recalls the Quran,
contain guidance and light (5:44-46).

Dhimmitude is not a Quranic notion, any more than it is a religious
statute. It is a legal pact concluded (during a given period) between
two parties: the Muslims who were in power and the Christians who were
under their protection. At the time when the Muslims established this system
it represented the best and fairest way of regulating coexistence with
non-Muslims.

Today, however, we have the concept of citizenship. During the Mamluk
and Ottoman periods, this pact caused resentment because it relegated the
Christian to the status of a second-class citizen within the framework
it had established, so that he felt deprived of both his dignity and his
rights. Re-evoking this notion in todays day and age would be tantamount
to calling for a return of the inhuman, uncivilised and ungodly excesses
of those times.

For this reason, Christians regard the dhimma system as an attack on
patriotism and coexistence. And they are right. The dhimma system is an
anachronistic notion that is no longer valid, since the parties have long
since dissolved the contract it was based on, which has been superseded
by the nation-state, created by Muslims and Christians together. With the
consolidation of the concept of citizenship, which guarantees the equality
of citizens regardless of religion, confession, race and gender, the dhimma
has become a historical fact, and is not a definitive, stable legal precept.
It goes without saying that superseding the dhimma does not signify superseding
Islamic sharia law or Islamic doctrine. Dhimmitude is a sad page in a long
history that has seen its own light and dark ages, as emphasised by the
Apostolic Exhortation on Lebanon in 1995.

Eastern Christians: conqueror crusaders?Whenever there is a political problem involving Christians, irrespective
of whether the issue regards a political party, or a political or religious
authority, the Crusades are dusted off and used to defame, discredit and
damage them. But the reality is that the Middle Eastern Crusades were not
Christian attempts at proselytising the region. They were expansionist
campaigns, carried out by the West under the banner of the cross, with
the aim of liberating Jerusalem from the Muslims. This is demonstrated
by the fact that the first victims of the campaigns were the faithful of
the Eastern Churches and the Jews, from Constantinople to Jerusalem itself.
The Crusaders destroyed churches, killed monks and priests, and burned
Christian towns and villages inhabited by peaceful people. The former Coptic
Pope, Shenouda, once mentioned to me that the Coptic Church has canonised
some nuns who were killed by the Crusaders. Arab historians soon realised
how things really stood, defining these expeditions as Frankish campaigns.
They knew that Eastern Christians were as much victims of these campaigns
as Muslims were.

Similarly, whenever a crisis erupts in relations between the Arabs and
the United States, or any European country, Arab Christians are accused
of being a fifth column of the Western enemy against Muslims and Arabs.
The origin of this error, or rather, this sin, lies in the confusion that
is generated in the minds of Islamic extremists between the notions of
the West and Christianity. This leads them to assume that Eastern Christianity
is simply an extension of the West, its spearhead, or that Eastern Christians
are the remnants of the Conqueror Crusaders.

Two facts belie this view. First, the West has renounced Christianity,
severing its cultural link with religion and embracing secularism as the
foundation of its societies. When the West sets itself up as a defender
of the rights of Eastern Christians, it is not moved to do so out of any
reasons of faith, rather by the desire to protect its interests in the
region. Secondly, Eastern Christians have taken a stand against Western
colonialism and the Zionist occupation, as evidenced by the national movements
in Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Iraq and Jordan, but above all in Palestine,
which were led by Christians or in which Christians played an active role.

Takfir and human dignityReticence about takfir [anathema] directed against non-Muslims is
the foundation that makes it possible to level charges of anathema also
against Muslims. This anathema is even used against Muslims of the same
confession simply because they express a differing political or personal
opinion! But, in reality, the noble Quran describes Christians as believers
and praises its priests and its monks. The Prophet Muhammad established
relations with them both before and after the start of his mission. He
concluded agreements with them based on the principle that our rights
are their rights, our obligations are their obligations, and prohibited
his followers from violating their people, their churches and their monasteries,
defining such places as houses of God where His name resonates and is praised.

This is confirmed by the covenant between the Prophet and the Christians
of Najran, and the covenant between Umar and the Patriarch of Jerusalem.
The monopolisation of the faith, and the exclusion of those who adhere
to other religions and creeds from Gods mercy, contrast with the Islamic
notion of faith, which extends to all the People of the Book. Indeed, this
notion is not limited to Christians and Jews, but may also be extended
to others. In fact, as the Almighty affirms in the Quran, He holds men
to account only after sending a Messenger, that is to say after the way
that leads to faith in Him has been revealed. The Almighty has also stated
that many of His prophets and messengers are not mentioned in the Quran.

Extremists limit the right to human dignity to adherents of the Muslim
faith. For this reason they do not accord the Christians, members of the
united Arab family and nation, the right to dignity. But the Quran says:
Verily we have honoured the Children of Adam (17:70) meaning that Man
is honoured by God as a human being, not for his faith in a religion or
his beliefs. God has chosen men (above all other creatures) as His representatives
on earth, without making it a condition that they be Muslims or adherents
of a particular religion or doctrine.

The restrictive practice of limiting dignity to a specific group of
human beings is a mistake. It is at odds with the openness of Islam, which
teaches us that dignity is a gift for everyone, and that all men have the
right to it. So, how do we safeguard these people, the children of one
nation and one family? It is the rights that come with citizenship that
make everyone equal, without distinction.

Cleave all to the rope of GodThe concept of diversity, which, according to Islam, exists and persists
because of the will and wisdom of God, contradicts the idea of ??a monopoly
on truth claimed by the extremists and fanatics, who consider any thought
other than their own disbelief and, as such, a deviation from true religion.
People are different, this is a natural fact. And only God, on the Day
of Resurrection, may judge human beings, taking into account the way in
which they have differed from one another. It follows that no one has the
right to scrutinise the conscience of another, in order to judge him. The
right to judge is reserved exclusively for the Almighty, on the day of
resurrection, as is clearly explained in the Quran. It is true that Islam
and Christianity differ on their understanding and definition of the Unity
of God, but it is equally true that Christianity no longer affirms that
God is the third of three. Christianity states that God is one, merciful
and compassionate.

Islam itself distinguishes between diversity, which it calls upon its
followers to welcome and respect, and fragmentation, which it rejects and
warns against. As we have already cited above, the Quran says: Cleave
all to the Rope of God and be not divided among yourselves (3:103). He
did not say let there be no difference between you.

One can hardly deny that Arab and Eastern Christians show big concerns
about sharia, which places non-Muslims outside the sphere of citizenship,
or renders them second-class citizens. And once again, the Christians are
right. In principle, the obligation to apply the Islamic sharia to Christians
contradicts the Quran, which states: Let the people of the Gospel judge
by what God hath revealed therein (5:47). Hence, the offenders are those
who have not judged according to what God has revealed to them.

The Noble Quran did not tell the people of the Gospel to judge according
to what God has revealed in the Quran! In light of this, how is it possible
to contemplate imposing sharia on those who should not be subject to it,
when Islam states for each We have made for you a law and a clear way
(5:48)? How can a religion that professes non-compulsion, as taught by
2:256, force Christians to follow sharia?

Caliphate: Quranic or post-Quranic origins?Today, with the advent of the so-called Islamic State, talk has again
turned to the idea of the Caliphate. It is understood as a religious state
that would marginalise Christians. However, the institution, as such, is
not mentioned in the Quran, neither can it be considered a legacy of the
Prophet.

Basically, in Islam, there is no such thing as a clerical religious
state, as recently reiterated by al-Azhar. The Caliphate is an institution
that was established upon the death of the Prophet, in order to confer
authority on the Muslim ruler as successor to Muhammad. The successors
of Ab? Bakr al-Sidd?q, successor to Gods Messenger, bore the title Commander
of the Faithful. Even before the death of Muhammad, his companions differed
on who should assume power after the Prophet, and how this power should
be conferred. They certainly would not have needed to gather to discuss
this matter if a text on the Caliphate had existed. Three of the four rightly
guided Caliphs (Umar, Uthman and Ali) were assassinated and their differences
generated a schism (fitna) that has not yet been resolved. Over time, the
differences have continued to multiply and accumulate, one upon the ruins
of the other.

To give a religious dimension to the Ottoman Empire, the Sultan, who
was neither an Arab, nor a descendant of the Quraysh (the Prophets tribe),
took the title of Caliph. Subsequently the British, who wanted to punish
the Sultan for having sided with Germany during World War I, attempted,
unsuccessfully, to establish a new caliphate in the Arab world or in India,
which was then under their control. At this point, they successfully campaigned
to abolish the Caliphate as an institution.

But Islam did not suffer the same fate, persisting as a religion protected
by the will of God. This proves that the fall of the caliphate system does
not necessarily mean the fall of Islam; and similarly, that the return
to the caliphate system does not mean the return of Islam. Islam is not
a political system for Muslims, but the message of the Lord of the worlds
intended for all men.

Islamophobia and ChristianophobiaThe phenomena of fanaticism and extremism  of such great concern for
Eastern Christians  constitute the main reasons for their emigration.
In addition to damaging the fragile foundations of citizenship, extremism
 with its deviation from the fundamentals of sharia and Islamic law, and
its claim to a monopoly on truth  is an important factor that lends its
weight to the elements responsible for the political and economic emigration,
which are having such a negative impact on our national societies.

This emigration is, in itself, one of the causes of Islamophobia, because
it helps to reinforce the conception held in the West that it is not possible
to co-exist with Islam, because Islam rejects the other. The West responds
with the same logic: if Islam rejects the other, how can it accept us?
And if, by its very nature, it refuses to accept us, why should we accept
it? Consequently, the emigration of Christians from the East not only causes
the collapse of the national social fabric and the loss of irreplaceable
cultural, scientific and economic skills, but also harms the Islamic presence
in the West and in the rest of the world, impacting negatively on relationships
between Muslims and Christians in Europe, North America, Australia, Canada,
etc., accentuating the feeling of rejection of Islam and fomenting discrimination
against Muslims.

Islamophobia has repercussions in Muslim countries where Eastern Christians
are victims, generating in turn what we may term Christianophobia. And
this, as we have already affirmed, is due to the failure to distinguish
between the West and Christianity. The result is an increase of extremism
not only in the East, but also in the West, which further undermines Muslim-Christian
relations.

In light of all this, it is not possible, or perhaps it is no longer
possible, to isolate and resolve these three phenomena on an individual
basis, since they have reached the point where they are interdependent.
Halting this Christian exodus  a goal shared by Christians and Muslims
alike  depends on the ability to curb extremism and fanaticism in Islamic
societies. Arab and Eastern Christians and Muslims have the unique responsibility
of maintaining Christian-Muslim relations by setting aside mutual provocations.

Christians can convey to the world an image of constructive coexistence
with Muslims, but to make this possible they must be permitted to lead
peaceful, constructive lives in their own countries. But this will never
happen until they are accorded the rights of full citizenship. For their
part, Muslims can help their fellow Christians to fulfil this role, but
to do so must also be able to live peaceful, constructive lives. These
aims can only be achieved by eradicating the culture of rejection, and
promoting a culture of respect for individual and collective freedoms,
in order to achieve full citizenship based on rights and duties.

Our Arab societies suffer from a lack of democracy and an excess of
extremism and fanaticism. The absence of democracy, imposed by suffocating
tyrannical regimes, contrasts with the requirements necessary to manage
religiously and ethnically diverse and sectarian societies, reinforces
fanaticism, and fans the flames of division and strife. Naturally, this
impacts negatively on the rights of citizenship, and the religious freedoms
that are implicit in such rights, which are systematically violated.

In summary, we can affirm that Eastern Christians are original citizens
of the region. They do not belong to Western culture, nor are they a political
extension of Europe, but must be numbered among the architects of Arab
culture and the guardians of its language, as well as active participants
in the development of Arab countries and defenders of their sovereignty.
Their suffering is an aspect of the suffering of all of the peoples of
the region. Western Islamophobia generates Christianophobia in the East,
as a reaction to political and human injustices, as evidenced by the Wests
support of Israel. These two negative phenomena are closely intertwined,
because they augment each other. The only way out of this situation is
citizenship, with respect for human rights, communities and the reinforcement
of Christian-Muslim relations at all levels.

Today these relations are going through a very critical phase, which,
as we have noted, is driving mass emigration and the rise of fanaticism.

Opposing this wave of extremism with a good word is both a right and
a duty. It is a right of society and the duty of every man of faith to
aspire to unity, security and peace in his society, both in Lebanon and
other Arab states. In an age when fanatical slogans resound, a good word
is like a good tree, its root set firm and its branches reaching into heaven
(14:24).

To stay on the straight pathMuslim men and women perform the five daily prayers. The faithful are
expected to perform at least 17 raka?t [prostrations performed during
the ritual prayer] during prayers. As they perform each raka, the faithful
recite the Opening sura: Guide us to the straight path, the path of those
upon whom You have bestowed Your grace, not the path of those who earn
Your anger nor of those who go astray! Who are those on whom God has bestowed
His grace? Who are those who have earned Gods anger? And who are those
that go astray? From the context of the sura it is clear that those on
whom God has bestowed His grace are the men who are led on the right way,
and that remain within the limits set by Him. Therefore those with whom
God is angry are the men who have left the right path and have overstepped
his bounds, while those who wander in error are the men who have been radicalised,
have abandoned the middle way and embraced excess.

Reciting the Opening sura while performing each raka, at every prayer,
every day, is an extremely sensible obligation, because it reminds the
faithful of the importance of staying on the right path, never leaving
it, in order to avoid finding oneself among those who go astray, nor rejecting
it, in order to avoid being among those with whom God is angry.

Yet the Islam of the 21st century is suffering from the growing influence
of those who have moved away  those with whom God is angry and those who
wander in error  with respect to the community of the faithful who keep
firmly to the right path.

The term righteousness (istiq?ma) and its derivatives occur 46 times
in the noble Quran, in 34 suras. The rectitude that Islam demands is related
to, and derives from, faith since it expresses the need to respect the
values and principles of Islam. The noble Quran states: Verily those
who say, Our Lord is God! and stand straight and steadfast, the angels
shall descend on them (41:30). Faith is the gateway to righteousness.
Righteousness is the fruit of faith. To turn away from this path generates
confusion, rebellion awakens the wrath of God.

Despite the fact that the community of true believers far outnumbers
them, the voice of the fanatics is heard ever more frequently, and the
quarrelsome play an increasingly negative role. These two groups presume
to speak on behalf of Islam, placing false words in its mouth, and this
damages the image of Islam, relations with non-Muslims and even relations
with Muslims of other denominations or even the same confession!

In a sound had?th, Gods Messenger, peace be upon Him, states: The
faith of a servant is not upright until his heart is upright, and his heart
is not upright until his tongue is upright. This had?th is completed by
another saying. To the question Who is a Muslim?, the Prophet replied:
a true Muslim is one whom the people need not fear either by word or deed.

Christians and Muslims together in diversityIn order to overcome the crisis of confidence that has shaken and dominated
Muslim-Christian relations, it is necessary to rediscover the conciliatory
 and not simply tolerant  spirit that typifies Islam. This rediscovery
is complementary to the rediscovery of the spirit of Christianity sanctioned
by the Second Vatican Council in the declaration Nostra Aetate in 1965.

For the first time, the Council not only expressed its esteem for Muslims,
who profess the uniqueness of God, honour the mother of the Messiah and
the Messiah Himself, worshiping Him as a prophet, but also stated that
the differences with Muslims constitute a danger to the faith in the one
God, who created all men and called them to redemption and happiness.
It set a basic principle:

The Church regards with esteem also the Moslems. They adore the one
God, living and subsisting in Himself; merciful and all- powerful, the
Creator of heaven and earth, who has spoken to men. They take pains to
submit wholeheartedly to even His inscrutable decrees, just as Abraham,
with whom the faith of Islam takes pleasure in linking itself, submitted
to God. Though they do not acknowledge Jesus as God, they revere Him as
a prophet. They also honour Mary, His virgin Mother; at times they even
call on her with devotion. In addition, they await the day of judgment
when God will render their deserts to all those who have been raised up
from the dead. Finally, they value the moral life and worship God especially
through prayer, almsgiving and fasting.

It is true that, in the Middle East in general, but in particular in
Lebanon, even before the Second Vatican Council, Muslims and Christians
shared feelings of brotherhood. However, the Council lent a theological
basis to this brotherhood, so that national fraternity was joined by the
brotherhood of faith in the one God. This brotherhood should not be just
a slogan, but should be reflected in individual and collective attitudes
and in public life. This explains the insistence of the Apostolic Exhortation
Ecclesia in the Middle East (n 25) on the right and the duty of Christians
to participate fully in national life, working to build up their country,
specifying that they should enjoy full citizenship and not be treated
as second-class citizens or believers.

Muslims in the Middle East, and particularly in Lebanon, have no need
of Christians when practising their religious rituals and consolidating
their spiritual relationship with God. Likewise, or perhaps even more so,
Christians can do without Muslims; but neither can do without the other
in his life. Life, in fact, as Martin Buber says, is the encounter with
the other.

And this encounter does not take place between the similar, it takes
place between the different.

Mohammed Sammak is adviser to the Grand Mufti of the Republic of the
Lebanon and secretary of the Committee for Muslim-Christian Dialogue in
the Lebanon. In 1995 he represented the Sunnite community at the Special
Synod for the Lebanon convened in the Vatican by John Paul II. He is the
author of various books, including Minorities between Arabness and Islam.

Watch the Incredible Procession at the Eucharistic
Congress - 2 millions!January 30, 2016
The image above, now circulating on Facebook, is remarkable. So is
the video below. An estimated 2 million people took part.
The story (h/t Fr. Patrick Longalong):

Cebuanos and delegates to the 51st International Eucharistic Congress
(IEC) currently being held in this city trooped to the Cebu Provincial
Capitol and filled its surrounding streets to hear the Mass led by Dublin,
Ireland Archbishop Diarmuid Martin.

According to Fr. Roberto Ebisa, SVD, of DYRF, Police Chief Inspector
Ryan Debaras estimated the crowd that gathered for the Mass and procession
to be nearly 2 million. Streets leading to the Capitol were closed to make
way for the millions of people joining in the international Catholic gathering
dubbed as the World Youth Day of adult Catholics. Candle-bearing delegates
and pilgrims from Cebu and around the world chanted hymns and prayers as
the carriage carrying the monstrance made its way slowly from the Capitol
through Osmeña Boulevard towards Plaza Independencia while a choir
led in the chanting of the Litany of the Saints and other hymns.

In his homily, Martin reminded the people that the Church became present
through the Eucharist, through the Holy Communion. No Eucharist, no Church
There is no Church without the Eucharist. The Eucharist constructs the
Church, he said. Martin was joined at the makeshift altar by Papal legate
Charles Maung Cardinal Bo, Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma, the Holy Sees Permanent
Observer to the United Nations Archbishop Bernardino Auza, and president
of the Pontifical Committee on IECs Archbishop Piero Marini as well as
hundreds of bishops and priests.

The Primate of Ireland said Christians need to realize that Christ came
to us as a gift and not as someone we construct ourselves. He then urged
Catholics to model their lives as a celebration of the mystery of the life
and love of Jesus Christ. We are called to understand, love and assimilate
the very love of Jesus Our lives too must be offered in sacrifice. Martin,
who is archbishop of the last diocese to host the IEC said that the Christian
community, a Eucharistic community, must always be a caring one. Special
monstrance Last Thursday, the Cebu provincial government declared no work
at the Capitol on Friday via its official social media accounts to give
way for the preparations for the Holy Mass and the Eucharistic procession.

The monstrance, specially designed for the IEC, was placed on a pedestal
in an open-top truck decked with flowers. Thousands followed the procession
while others waited at the sides, carrying lighted candles or praying the
rosary.

Fourth degree Knights of Columbus in full Honor Guard regalia led the
procession followed by women in white veils and the rest of the crowd.

On Sunday, millions are expected to attend the Statio Orbis Mass (Latin
for Stations of the World) or Concluding Mass of the 51st IEC at the
South Road Properties. The term was first used to describe the concluding
celebration of the 37th IEC in Munich, Germany in 1960. The phrase came
to refer to the

The Catholic Priest Who Found Jesus Christ While Among
the MuslimsAt
great risk, Fr. Humblot lived for years in Iran, sharing the Gospel and
serving the poor

James Davis
January 31, 2016 January 31, 2016

One of the first times Father Humblot came into contact with Muslims
was seeing the shadow of a terrorist during the war in Algeria. He was
serving at the time in the French contingent, and the figure was at the
end of his gun. He knew he should shoot, but he chose not to pull the trigger
and withdrew on tiptoe. The enemy did not shoot either. When he was still
a seminarian, he decided to devote his life to the service of Muslims.
He became a missionary priest in the Prado association.

While he finished studying theology in Beirut in the early 60s, Father
Humblot chose to live in the slum which adjoined the city dump. His neighbors,
Lebanese Shiites of southern Lebanon or Syria, were dockers or worked sorting
garbage. Separated from them by a simple sheet of cardboard, he was admitted
into this community of poor Muslims and he shared their work, either in
the middle of the city dump or as a longshoreman at the port. His goal
was to help seminarians and young priests who wanted to serve the poor
not only to contemplate the poverty of Jesus Christ but to share for a
few days that of the poor.

I gave the baby bottleHe established a relationship of trust with his neighbors, who knew
he was a Catholic priest: My chapel was out in the open, everyone could
see it, he recalls. One night, the man in the house just next to his called
for help: his wife had left and he did not know how to feed the baby as
she had been breast-feeding The priest then boiled a bottle and made
a baby bottle out of it. And this is how we could see a French priest giving
a small Muslim his milk between two cardboard boxes in a Beirut slum!

Koran ReadingWhen it rained, the inhabitants of the slum met during the night in
each others homes, to avoid going out in the muddy streets. They listened
to the Koran, gathered around the best reader. Father Humblot was chosen
to read, resulting in another strange scene: a Catholic priest reciting
suras, especially that of Maryam, that he explained to his audience in
the light of the Gospels. Two sheiks got wind of the priests activities
and wanted to stop them, but they were driven out by Father Humblots neighbors
who were accustomed to their priest.

At the end of his stay, he learned that his activities and his complicity
with the local population earned him the distrust of some Muslims, but
his neighbors protected him during the June 1968 war with Israel. During
many of my journeys, I was followed by two neighbors who discreetly ensured
my protection! I knew nothing at the time. 

No animosityI never felt any animosity on the part of the Muslims that I lived
with, says the priest, who spent 45 years in Iran. His troubles came from
the political police, who looked askance at his activities as a missionary
priest in Tehran and who threatened him to the point that his bishop urged
him to leave five years ago. Since 1969, after learning the language, he
did something scandalous: he taught Muslims who wanted to convert to Christianity
 and there are many of them  despite the risks!

His neighbors knew it but never reproached him for it. Once, during
the Islamic Revolution, in the volatile atmosphere you can imagine, a group
of youths attacked me when I had gone out to shop at the local grocer,
This is an American! Lets get him!

I told them I was French. Their answer was: Oh yes, since the Imam
Khomeini took refuge in France, all foreigners are French!

When we got to the grocers who knew me, we continued to debate and
finally the leader of the group offered me a cigarette, a Marlboro! My
immediate response was: I do not smoke American Take one of these.
And I took an Iranian cigarette out of my pocket. The whole gang burst
out laughing and we parted friends. 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church translated by ayatollahsLater, the priest was invited to the holy city of Qom where the ayatollahs
and other Shiite leaders are trained. A group of Muslim clerics asked him
to check their translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. When
Father asked why they had translated it, they replied: Because we want
to present each religion with the official texts of the religion, not according
to what we think.

In the discussion that followed, the Muslim clerics questioned him.
What is the greatest commandment in Christianity? Father Humblot answered
that there was only one commandment: Love, which encompasses all things.
And off we go into a discussion on this one God who is love, not only because
He loves us, but because He is not remote, solitary and dangerous, overseeing
and judging sinners  he recalls.
This catechism was printed up but then destroyed by the political and
religious police but then reprinted on the occasion of the election of
the new president. It is on sale in bookstores in Tehran and the Father
often used it to answer catechumens questions.

Thanks to the Muslims, I am aware that Jesus is the Son of God
Father Humblot continues his dialogue now from Paris through the Internet
with Muslims who, in Iran, Afghanistan and Europe wish to convert to Christianity,
and receives touching testimonies of friendship like that of Amin, an Iranian,
who wrote: I am a Muslim but I like the Catholics because they are respectful
of the person and preach love. Father Humblot gives thanks to God for
having converted him to Jesus Christ through the Muslims attitude.
He explains: Raised in a very Christian family, I loved the gospel
and considered Jesus as my best friend. Until the day when, in the leper
colony where often the very sick and suffering prayed and fasted with great
submission to the will of God Almighty, I discovered adoration and prostration
before Jesus, as not only my friend but also the Son of God. 

Translated the French by Liliane Stevenson.

Ten Ways to Fall in Love with the EucharistFr. Ed Broom, OMV

The saints are the mad-lovers of Jesus; they were on earth and now
are in heaven loving God for all eternity. In this article, we will
give a list of what some saints have said in an excess of love for the
most Holy Eucharist. Then we will give ten keys to unlock the treasure-case
of gems to love the Eucharist more in our lives! Let us read and meditate
on the fire of the saints and the Eucharist:

Holy Communion is the shortest and the safest way to Heaven. (St. Pius
X)

If the angels could be jealous of men, they would be for one reason: Holy
Communion. (St. Maximilian Kolbe)

In one day the Eucharist will make you produce more for the glory of God
than a whole lifetime without it. (St. Peter Julian Eymard)

How I love the feasts! I especially loved the processions in honor of
the Blessed Sacrament. What a joy it was for me to throw flowers beneath
the feet of God! I was never so happy as when I saw my roses touch the
sacred Monstrance. (St. Therese the Little Flower)

When you look at the Crucifix, you understand how much Jesus loved you
then. When you look at the Sacred Host you understand how much Jesus loves
you now. (Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta)

From the Eucharist comes strength to live the Christian life and zeal
to share that life with others. (St. John Paul II)

This is the bread of everlasting life which supports the substance of
your soul. (St. Ambrose)

The longer you stay away from Communion, the more your soul will be weak,
and in the end you will become dangerously indifferent. (St. John
Bosco)

The Eucharist is the consummation of the whole spiritual life. (St. Thomas
Aquinas)

Now let us dive into ten golden keys that can open up the infinite treasure
house of jewels so as to derive countless graces and blessings from Jesus
greatest Gift to the entire world: Holy Mass and Holy Communion, His Body,
Blood Soul and Divinity!

Faith.

Beg the Lord for a greater faith in the sublime mystery of the most
Holy Eucharist. Let us say with the Apostles Saint Thomas:
My Lord and my God. Let us also so the prayer of the man of the Gospel:
Lord I believe but strengthen my faith!

Visit.

Make it a habit to visit the most Blessed Sacrament as often as is possible.
Hopefully when we die Jesus will not reproach us with these words: Whenever
I see a church I stop to make a visit so that when I die the Lord will
not say: Who is it! Friends meet to chat, talk, and enjoy
each others company; so should we, in visiting and talking frequently
to Jesus.

Spiritual Communion.

Highly recommended by St. Alphonsus Liguouri as well as Pope Benedict
XVI in his document Sacramentum Caritatis is the frequent practice of
the Spiritual Communion. It can be done in a simple manner
and as often as your heart desires. You can say the simple
prayer: Jesus I believe that you are truly present in the Tabernacle
in your Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. Now I cannot receive you sacramentally
but come at least spiritually into my heart. Then enter into your
heart and thank, praise and love the Lord who has come spiritually into
your soul. This can fan the flame of love for our Eucharistic Lord.

Read John 6.

The Gospel of John chapter six has three parts: Jesus multiples the
loaves, walks on water, and then He gives a sublime discourse related to
the Eucharist; actually it is a Eucharistic prophecy. Best
known as the Bread of life discourse, Jesus promises to give us the Bread
of Life. Also Jesus points out in no unclear terms that our immortal
salvation depends upon our eating His Body and drinking His Blood, which
obviously refers to Holy Communion. Read and meditate this powerful
chapter!

Fifteen Minutes.

Years ago there was published a small booklet with the title The fifteen
minutes. It is a little gem where Jesus encourages the reader to
enter into simple but profound conversation with Him. Basically Jesus wants
to be our Best Friend and challenges us to open up the secret mysteries
of our heart to Him and only He can truly understand the inner secrets,
wounds and mysteries in our heart. Read and pray through this
booklet if possible in front of the Blessed Sacrament!

Holy Hour.

Get into the habit of making a daily Holy Hour in front of the most
Blessed Sacrament. It will transform your life if you persevere in the
practice. The Great Servant of God, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, who
made his Holy Hour faithfully for more than fifty years, called it THE
HOUR OF POWER!

Adorn and Embellish Churches & the Eucharist.

The woman lavished her expensive nard on the feet of Jesus; she wept
and her tears came pouring forth on the feet of Jesus; finally she wiped
Jesus feet with her hair (Lk. 7:36-50). Fulton Sheen points
out that this is symbolic of the gestures of love and attention we should
manifest in the way we adorn, embellish and beautify the Churches and tabernacles
where Jesus abides.

Known for his spirit of penance, fasting, and sacrifice, the Cure of
Ars would travel long distances and expend big sums of money to purchase
the best for his little Church. Why? For the simple reason that Jesus the
King of Kings and the Lord of Lords abides in the tabernacle and descends
from heaven in the hands of the priest in every consecrated Host. O come
let us adore Him!

Holy Mass and Holy Communion.

Of course the greatest action in the whole universe is the celebration
of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The greatest gesture any human being
can accomplish is to assist at Mass and to receive Holy Communion with
faith, devotion, reverence and awe but especially with a passionate love.
Whenever possible, go to daily Mass. Arrive early to prepare yourself.
Offer your own private intentions. Participate in Holy Mass fully, actively
and consciously. Receive Holy Communion as if it were your
first Holy Communion, last Holy Communion and only Holy Communion. Be exceedingly
thankful for your faith in such a sublime and august mystery!
Do not rush out of the Church after Mass, as if your pants were on fire!
Rather, spend some time after Holy Mass to render abundant thanks to Jesus
for such a sublime gift. Actually the word Eucharist means THANKSGIVING!
What a sublime gift, free of charge. The only condition is lively faith
and a heart overflowing with love for Jesus the greatest of all lovers!

A.C.T.S.

Remember the four principal ends or purpose of the Holy Sacrifice of
the MassA.C.T.S

Astands for adoration. The primary purpose of Holy Mass is to
offer adoration to God the Father, by the offering of Jesus the Victim
and through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Cstands for contrition. Our hearts should be contrite and humble
and repentant for our many sins. It is a great practice to offer our Mass
and Holy Communion in reparation for our sins, the sin of our families
as well as in reparation for the sins of the whole world. For the
sake of His sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

Tstands for thanksgiving. Everything that we have in this lifewith
the exception of our own sinsis a pure gift from God. Therefore we should
be overflowing and abounding in the thanksgiving. With the Psalmist let
us pray: Give thanks to the Lord for He is good; his love endures forever.

SStands for supplication; in other words we should offer prayers of
fervent intercession and petition for the many needs of the world: the
world at large, the Church, the conversion of sinners, the sick, the dying,
our own personal family needs, the souls in purgatory, and much more .

Eucharistic Missionary.

As Mary received Jesus in the Annunciation and promptly and quickly
brought Jesus to her cousin Elizabeth, so should we bring Jesus to others,
and others to Jesus. This can be done in a very concrete manner
by encouraging Catholic lost sheep wandering in the wilderness back to
the fold. The second largest religious group in the United States
are non-practicing Catholics.

Find the time, manner, effort and initiative to invite some lost soul
back to Church. Hopefully he or she can make a good confession and return
to the reception of Holy Communion and to the loving embrace of God the
Father. All this might take place if you simply trust God and take the
initiative to welcome them back! God is so loving and good! Share
the Good News to the entire world!

Archbishop of Guwahati: In Asia religion is not dying,
the faithful take strength from the Eucharist

INDIA  PHILIPPINES - AsiaNews

Mgr Menamparampil is among the speakers at the International Eucharistic
Congress in Cebu, Philippines. He was also a conflict mediator between
various ethnic groups. He told AsiaNews about the value of the Congress
for the Catholic Church in Asia and how people can bear witness the Gospel
today, even amid tensions and violence of those who "hate us." "with the
same pain in our hearts that we descend to our depths during a Eucharistic
adoration."

Mumbai (AsiaNews)  In Asia, prayer gatherings draw larger crowds than
sports events or entertainments of any sort. This is the best answer to
militant atheists who keep arguing that religion is dying out. At a massive
prayer-event the rich and the poor become equal, says Mgr Thomas Menamparampil,
Archbishop of Guwahati and Apostolic Administrator of Jowai in India, speaking
about the 51st International Eucharistic Congress in Cebu. The Archbishop
acted as mediator in the conflict between the various ethnic groups and
declares that silent worship is just what Asians value most in religion
and for it Eucharistic adoration breathes a sense of mystery.

We would best witness to the Gospel in Asia, says, if we should be
able enter into the mental state of Jesus who felt abandoned as he was
close to his death in order to understand the inner agony of those who
feel abandoned by society, even by their families and intimates in certain
painful contexts. The cry of the poor is the cry of Jesus on the
Cross.
The role od dialogue with religions, which it doesnt mean sit together
to have a cup of the, but it is ongoing relationship, mutual education,
stimulating cooperation. The Christian Inculturation should not become
like an artificial face-makeup, but it is the life-giving touch of Christ.
Archbishop Menamparampils interview with AsiaNews follows:

Excellency, what is the meaning of the International Eucharistic
Congress for the Church in Asia?

Silent worship is just what Asians value most in religion. Eucharistic
adoration makes profound meaning for them as it breathes a sense of mystery.
It stands for depth in their understanding. The external ceremonies and
solemnity are less important in their perception. What is Important is
to delve behind the meaning of those rituals.

For believing Asians, all activities derive their strength and motivation
from their relationship with the Ultimate. Mahatma Gandhi began the more
serious part of his political career in an Ashram with regular habits of
prayer. When he taught nonviolence from a prayer context it appealed to
the nation. With the tools of nonviolence sharpened, he could go ahead
more confidently into his struggle for his country's independence.

How do we witness to the Gospel in Asia in our times?

I think we would best witness to the Gospel in Asia when we join the
rest of local society in seeking to address the problems of the day. "We
also evangelise when we attempt to confront the various challenges which
can arise (EG 61)," says Pope Francis.

Addressing a human need with a sense of commitment is the primary duty
for a Christian. "You yourselves give them something to eat," said Jesus
to his disciples who wanted to withdraw before an actual human need. I
would not limit this way of addressing the needs of the poor to merely
to food and drink, medicine and blankets; but also to encouraging words
and supportive fellowship, to contextual wisdom and a vision for the future,
reassuring forgiveness and dreams that people consider impossible.

The sigh of the helpless is closely linked to the loud "groans and tears"
(Heb 5:7) of Jesus in Gethsemane. We should be able to keep close to him
in his agony in the anguish of deprived slum dwellers, marginalised ethnic
groups, exploited Dalit villagers; in the uncertainties of mentally confused
young people. We should be able enter into the mental state
of Jesus who felt abandoned as he was close to his death in order to understand
the inner agony of those who feel abandoned by society, even by their families
and intimates in certain painful contexts. The cry of the poor is
the cry of Jesus on the Cross.
I would say the best evangelisers today are those who have developed
the skill of building bridges to individuals and communities, not necessarily
those who are over-confident about their message and their methods, or
those who speak from a moral high ground, or are specialised in denouncing
others. The best missionaries are those who know how to relate with cultures,
communities, heritages, and collective identities with intelligence;
and how to deal with resentful individuals, inward-looking ethnic groups,
angered societies, vengeful radicals, with attention, respect and sensitivity.
The best evangelisers are those who accept the most pressing problems of
the day as the starting for sharing a relevant message, suggesting realistic
solutions, and sustaining hope when all human solutions fail. There they
have a chance to point beyond!

What would you say about dialogue with religions?

The problem with us is that we seem to limit Dialogue to an academic
exercise. How many dialogue sessions end up as a ritual, concluding with
a cup of tea! But if the dialogue is about the most pressing problems of
society at a given moment, it comes to life. Each one draws strength
from his/her own source of inspiration, but its worth is weighed according
to its relevance to the anxiety they share. One's words acquire convincing
power in proportion to their applicability to the context. Even the best
proposals may be rejected, but the sense of what is right remains, and
it may acquired greater respectability when the situation makes its rightness
evident. But this is just one aspect dialogue. In fact, dialogue
is ongoing relationship, it is mutual education, it is stimulating cooperation.
It is about creating a sense co-belonging. In these times of mutual exclusion,
mild hostility, and even absolute hatred between communities, religious
groups and civilizational blocs, dialogue of respect and relationship is
just what is needed. In a highly secularized, market-driven, value-neutral,
materialistic world, sincere followers of various religious traditions
must come together and inspire and help each other.

Religious dialogue ascends to new heights when it concerns itself with
actual religious experiences. Everyone is deeply edified when he/she hears
the description of an actual religious experience in another tradition.
An encounter with the divine is life-transforming. In this era of vanishing
and values and absence of moral convictions, we seek assistance from persons
of every persuasion to help. Jesus somehow interests more people than we
think, if only his real face is made manifest.

Mgr Menamparampil, what do you think about the ongoing process of
Inculturation among Asian tribal cultures?

I am cautious about speaking on Inculturation as a sort of surgical
operation or genetic engineering. I would consider it rather as a happy
encounter between two sets of human experiences. The historical and social
experiences of a particular tribe will have given shape to an identity
to a community with its own worldview and values. If any community feels
its identity or heritage threatened, it goes on the defensive. Today it
is happening all over the world. If a community perceives an increase of
threat, its defence may take a radical shape. Christian Inculturation should
not become something like an artificial face-makeup or a decorative adaptation.
It is the life-giving touch of Christ, a stimulating encounter with his
message, where what is best in a tradition begins to flower in a new and
amazing way. If there are areas of self-correction or instances of sharing
elements from other faith-communities, these can only be in the context
of the growth of the community in keeping with its original genius. That
evangeliser helps best who knows how to bring to life what is best in a
community's values and traditions.

And what do you say about the missionarys commitment to the poor?

My answer is simple: when you run short of generosity, draw close to
the poor. Their needs will stir in your generosity. They will multiply
your energies. They will empower you to do amazing things. No wonder, Mother
Teresa used to say, "The poor are our teachers." St. Vincent de Paul
had some similar expression. In an earlier question I had already spoken
about the various needs of the poor. Let me add one more dimension. I have
a feeling that those who are poorest are those who are most distant from
God. In this year of mercy, we come close them and help them to rediscover
their way to God.

And how do you deal with huge social problems?

Let me add a new category: those who oppose us, hate our beliefs and
values, and harass and persecute us beyond endurance. I agree that we have
every right to put the entire strength of law and the weight of public
opinion in self defence. Any yet we have the duty to identify ourselves
with them too. As the victim is our brother/sister, so is the aggressor.
It is thinking about him that Christ cried and shed tears in the Garden
and writhed in pain on the cross. It is with the same pain in our hearts
that we descend to our depths during a Eucharistic adoration. If these
things do not form a part of our inner struggle, our Eucharistic devotion
lacks depth.

The powers of evil are defeated only when they are driven out of the
inner world of our brother/sister. Historic wounds cannot be healed by
immediate persuasion. But putting our weight on the path of persuasion,
we hasten the coming of the Kingdom. I am sure many will not agree with
me. These are beyond practical possibilities, but our evangelisation becomes
convincing only when people see that we know how to look beyond the horizon,
that we are people of faith, that ultimate realities of which we speak
are are living force with us. Let us keep believing in the impossible and
striving towards it as a witness to our faith

Finally, does the Congress push forward the mission of the Christians
in Asia?

In Asia, prayer gatherings draw larger crowds than sports events or
entertainments of any sort. This is the best answer to militant atheists
who keep arguing that religion is dying out. At a massive prayer-event
the rich and the poor become equal. There they recharge their energies
for another round of generous service. In this sense, the International
Eucharistic Congress in the Philippines can help to revive the faith of
the Catholics in that country and motivate all who gather there to return
home and bear witness to their faith with redoubled spiritual strength.

Non-Christians queue to cross Bandra Holy Door (Photo)

INDIA
Nirmala Carvalho

Pilgrims to the Basilica of Our Lady of the Mount kneel in front of
the priest and ask to confess. Msgr. Nereus Rodrigues is rector of the
Basilica, where Card. Gracias opened the Holy Door. The bishop has set
up panels that draw attention to the corporal works of mercy. The Holy
Door decorated with messages. Thousands of pilgrims visiting.

Mumbai (AsiaNews) - Since the Holy Door of Mercy was opened in the basilica
of Our Lady of the Mount in Bandra (Mumbai), Maharashtra, it has attracted
thousands of Christians and faithful of other religions. "Everyone is eager
to receive the sacrament of reconciliation," says Msgr. Nereus Rodrigues,
rector of the basilica, who cares for many pilgrims who arrive every day
from dawn to dusk, along with the vice rector Fr. Anaiceto. The prelate
adds: "Many Christians come here, stand in line, then kneel in front of
the priest and sit in the confessional. Speaking softly, asking for the
forgiveness of their sins".

Msgr. Nereus is confident that many people of different faiths come
to the Church throughout the year. But now, with the opening of the Jubilee
Door, the church is frequented by a growing number of devotees.

Outside the basilica, in the area reserved to the oratory (see photo),
the bishop installed panels that draw your attention to the spiritual and
corporal works of mercy, underlined by Pope Francis for this Jubilee. According
to Msgr. Nereus, "in this way, through the written warnings, pilgrims can
read, understand and then implement the works of mercy."

Other panels were placed along the sides of the front entrance to the
basilica. Msgr. Nereus said: "We want the faithful to celebrate the Jubilee
of mercy even before entering the church. At the entrance there are two
large panels that sway in the wind: one shows the logo of the extraordinary
Holy Year, the other is the image of the prodigal son, with an explanation
by Pope Francis. "

Moreover, the same Holy Door is decorated with the message: "On one
side the inscription 'Mary conceived without sin'. The other an invocation
for the Jubilee. "

At the Milk Grotto, 'evidence that there is God' Couples
struggling with fertility attribute miracle babies to where Mary supposedly
first nursed Jesus

At the Milk Grotto, 'evidence that there is God' Pilgrims experiencing
fertility issues flock to the Milk Grotto in Bethlehem. Renata Sedmakova
/ Shutterstock
Tucked away behind Nativity Square, not far from the Church of the
Nativity that, according to Christian tradition, marks the spot where Jesus
was born in the manger, is the Milk Grotto. This is the location where,
according to another tradition, Mary nursed the Infant Jesus and where
a few drops of her milk fell onto the rocks, turning the soft limestone
from its original yellowish-brown hue to a creamy white.
In a tradition dating back centuries  possibly even to the earliest
Christians  women and couples who are unable to conceive have come to
this grotto to pray to Mary, in hopes that her intercession will bless
them with a baby.

Keeping records

Today, pilgrims can take home tiny packets of white powder from the
grotto, and together, the couple for 40 days follows a devotion that includes
drinking small amounts of the powder and saying a prayer. The bags are
sold at a symbolic cost but can only be purchased at the grotto since the
requests would be overwhelming to manage.In the 12 years since Brother
Lawrence Bode, the Franciscan caretaker of the shrine, has been keeping
records, there have been about 4,000 letters from couples attributing their
miracle babies to the milk powder. Brother Lawrence estimates that there
have been twice as many babies born whose parents have not written him.
He keeps all the letters and pictures in black and white three-ring binders
and is now on his 10th binder. The latest babies include a pair of twins.

(Last week), I went to the post office box and there were about 10
baby pictures, Brother Lawrence said. People pray for healing so they
can have a baby and become a mother. Every two days, we have a baby. It
is a wonderful place to work, bringing babies from all over the world.
It is such tangible evidence to the miracle. The letters are the testimony.
Indeed, the letters and pictures in the binders and the ones decorating
almost two walls of his small office next to the shrine come from every
corner of the world, including Brazil, Argentina, India, the Philippines,
Mexico, the United States, Canada, Germany, Sri Lanka, Bermuda, Ireland
and Spain. More recently, Brother Lawrence said, he has even been receiving
letters from Taiwan and China.

Miraculous evidence

Each letter attests to the difficulty the couples had in conceiving.
One woman and her husband wrote from India that they had struggled to conceive
for as long as 20 years. The husband wrote about their immense joy when
their baby girl was born after they had followed the devotion. An Episcopal
pastor from the United States wrote about the six years he and his wife
were trying to conceive and sent a picture of him proudly carrying his
newborn baby in a carrier on his chest. From Argentina, a young woman wrote
about the birth of her daughter after 10 months of trying to conceive.
Two local Palestinian couples sent in pictures of their miracle babies:
One couple had triplets, and the other quadruplets.

Brother Lawrence says he often jokes with couples to be careful how
much of the powder they take because that is what can happen. But in all
seriousness, he says he never asks the couples if they are also undergoing
fertility treatments but acknowledges that very well may also be the case.
Their prayers and faith in the devotion may help the process along, he
said. Some letters attribute other miracles, such as healing from cancer,
blindness and paralysis to the milk powder as well.

It is a wonderful feeling to know that there is hope for couples, people
who are sick, even people who are losing faith. I pray for the people who
take this devotion every day of my life, said Brother Lawrence. This
is evidence that there is God. We are talking about miracles. In these
days, you talk about miracles and people dont believe. Some people, such
as the parents of the quadruplets and the parents of a girl from a northern
Galilee village who was in a coma, have brought their children back to
the shrine to give thanks, Father Lawrence said.

Giving hope

Long devoted to the Virgin Mary even before he went into religious life,
Brother Lawrence said his devotion has grown threefold since he joined
his order.
There are a certain number of prayers I have to pray to the Virgin
Mary every day or I am not a happy person, he smiled, adding: We put
our faith in Jesus. We put our faith in his mother. In several spots in
the grotto, ceiling holes the width of a finger are evident where, over
the years, people have scraped bits of the powder to take home. Indeed,
Brother Lawrence says, they must be vigilant of people who try to scrape
the powder from the ceiling. Just recently, he said, a visitor was attempting
to carve out hunks of the stone with an umbrella.

The structure was renovated two years ago, removing centuries old soot
from the ceiling and, to accommodate bigger pilgrim groups, adding a larger
upper chapel on top of the older chapel, which was built over the grotto
around the year 385. He noted that at some point during earlier renovations,
a huge deposit of the powder was put into storage, which is what is today
offered to the faithful who come to the shrine. Brother Lawrence said he
believes there is enough to last at least 100 years.

This gives the people hope. It is good that there is hope, said Svetlana
Rezinovski, a tour guide who came by for the second time in two days to
buy numerous packets for members of her group from Moldova. Orthodox Christians
also come to ask for (Marys) help, too.

As Christians are celebrating the birth of Jesus during the Christmas
season, Brother Lawrence says he celebrates the birth every day as babies
from all over the world are born with what he believes is the intercession
of Mary using the grottos milk powder. On Jan. 1, a special Mass in
honor of Mary is celebrated at St. Catherine Cathedral, which is adjacent
to the Church of the Nativity. Several hundred faithful follow in a procession
with song and prayer, carrying an icon of the Virgin Mary to the Milk Grotto,
where they are blessed by a priest.

Jesus tells us that if we have the faith of a mustard seed, we can
move the mountain, Brother Lawrence said. Miracles happen with peoples
faith. This is not magic. It has to do with a persons faith and belief.

Judith Sudilovsky writes from Jerusalem.

The number of Christian martyrs has tripled in two
years.

Cross
of the Martyrs.

Washington D.C., Jan 15, 2016 / 04:03 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In 2013,
there were some 2,100 Christians killed for faith-related reasons across
the globe. Last year, that number rose to at least 7,100, according to
a recent report from an advocacy group.

The persecution of Christians is getting worse  in every region in
which we work  and its getting worse fast, Lisa Pearce, CEO of Open
Doors UK and Ireland, said in the groups 2016 report. Many countries
have dropped down the list, not because persecution there is decreasing,
but simply because others are getting worse faster. And it wasnt good
three years ago. We can and must be strenuous in protecting Christians
and all others facing persecution for their faith, Pearce added.
Open Doors has worked to help persecuted Christians for over 60 years.
It was founded by a Dutchman known as Brother Andrew. He smuggled Bibles
into Eastern Europe at a time when communist regimes severely restricted
Christianity and other religions. The organization works in 60 countries.
Each year, it compiles instances of anti-Christian persecution and evaluates
the global situation.

The latest report found that anti-Christian persecution reached a new
peak in 2015, with thousands more people killed for faith-related reasons.
About 4,000 Christians were killed in Nigeria, over 1,200 in the Central
African and over 700 in Chad throughout 2015. In addition, over 2,400 churches
were attacked or shut down for faith-related reasons, the Open Doors report
said.
Open Doors World Watch List evaluates Christian persecution in the
worlds countries and ranks the worst 50. The worst 10 countries on the
2016 list are North Korea, Iraq, Eritrea, Afghanistan, Syria, Pakistan,
Somalia, Sudan, Iran and Libya. North Korea, a communist state, is still
the country where it is most difficult to be a Christian, the group found.
It has about 300,000 Christians in a population of 24.5 million. The country
has headed Open Doors watch list for 14 years. News from the isolated
country is difficult to confirm. However, Open Doors said the countrys
leadership sees Christianity as deeply Western and despicable.

Christians try to hide their faith as far as possible to avoid arrest
and being sent to a labor camp. Thus, being Christian has to be a well-protected
secret, even within families, and most parents refrain from introducing
their children to the Christian faith in order to make sure that nothing
slips their tongue when they are asked.

In Iraq, hundreds of thousands of Christians have fled their homes for
fear of violence, especially from ISIS. Iraq has suffered from years of
structural uncertainty, conflict and instability under a government incapable
of enforcing the rule of law and providing a minimum of security, Open
Doors said. In Eritrea, there are about 2.5 million Christians out of a
population of 6.7 million. The Eritrean regime is absolutely authoritarian
and intolerant towards any form of association, dissent and free expression,
Open Doors commented.
The government aims to control all religious institutions and has deposed
the Eritrean Orthodox Patriarch. The country has consistently supported
the rise of radical Islam in the region, including arming the Islamist
extremist group Al-Shabaab.
The Open Doors watch list cited several trends worsening anti-Christian
persecution.

These trends include the expansion of self-styled Islamic caliphates,
who now operate across international borders. Governments who fear Islamic
extremism respond by working to increase nationalist sentiment or they
tighten rules and increase surveillance over religious expression. In addition,
some Muslims are becoming stricter out of fear of extremist takeovers or
ISIS sleeper groups.

According to the report, the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia were
the fastest growing areas of persecution. More states suffer lawlessness,
which means minorities there suffer more violence. Religious extremism,
including Islamic, Hindu and Buddhist extremism, is the greatest source
of anti-Christian persecution. The report blamed tribal antagonism as well
as churches that do not want to recognize Christians of other denominations.

Mexico ranks 40th on the list, while Colombia ranks 46th. They are the
only countries in the Americas to appear on the list. Open Doors said that
drug trafficking is largely at the root of anti-Christian persecution in
Latin America. Local church leaders are often the only ones who will oppose
drug traffickers, but then become targets for violence and extortion.

There is always hope, and yet we are in unmarked territory  the pace
and scale of persecution of Christians is unprecedented and growing fast.
We should not expect that to change unless we are part of changing the
situation, Pearce said.

She found hope in areas where Christian churches grow despite persecution.
In countries like Syria, Christian communities care for their Muslim neighbors.
In places like Mandera, Kenya, Muslims opposed anti-Christian attackers,
saying, You kill all of us or none of us.

Slovenia rejects same-sex marriage in referendum

Even the Pope got involved
Dec 21st 2015,
MORE THAN 60% of Slovenian voters opposed legalising gay marriage in
a referendum marked by low turnout, according to near-complete results
from the electoral commission. The outcome marked a setback for gay rights
activists who had hoped to see the largely Catholic nation become Europes
first ex-communist country to give same-sex couples the right to marry
and adopt. With 99.9% of ballots counted, 63.48% of voters said no to
approving the legislation, which already passed in parliament earlier this
year. More than 1.7 million people were registered to vote on an issue
that has stoked heated debate in the former Yugoslav republic, but turnout
was low at just 36.18%. For the outcome to be legally valid, opponents
of the law needed to muster the support of at least 20% of registered voters
 the equivalent of at least 342,000 votes. They ended up garnering 391,818,
the commission said.

According to Ljudmila Novak, a senior member of the conservative Nova
Slovenija party, said the message is clear. We need to protect the rights
of children, she said. We agree with providing the appropriate rights
for homosexuals, while preserving the family as the primary environment
for children. In March, parliament approved legislation redefining marriage
as a union of two instead of a union of a man and a woman, granting
homosexual couples the same rights as their heterosexual counterparts,
including the right to adopt children. But opponents immediately launched
a campaign to reverse the changes, meaning the legislation never came into
force and no same-sex couples were able to tie the knot. A group called
Children Are At Stake managed to gather the 40,000 signatures necessary
to force a referendum. Even Pope Francis waded in, urging Slovenians to
defend traditional family values.
He said last week he encouraged everyone, especially those with public
responsibility, to support the family, a structural reference point for
the life of society.

A miracle at the Holy Door in Zhengding: 10,000 underground
Catholics celebrate the Jubilee without arrests

CHINA, Dec. 15, 2015Its a miracle! It is protection from Heaven!
said some Catholics from the underground community in Zhengding (Hebei)
after what happened on Sunday, December 13.

About 10,000 faithful from Zhengding, Lingshou, Beijing, and Baoding
had gathered outside the cathedral (pictured) to celebrate the beginning
of the Jubilee and the opening of the Holy Door. The miracle is that
police, which is always present in front of the church, did nothing to
prevent the event and did not arrest anyone. (Perhaps) an even greater
miracle was the fact that the underground bishop led the liturgy, which
lasted from 8:30 am to 12:30 pm.

Mgr Julius Jia Zhiguo, who is not recognized by the government, has
been under house arrest for years for refusing to join the Chinese Patriotic
Catholic Association (CPCA), and for remaining loyal to the pope. The CPCA
is a Communist Party agency whose aim is to establish a Catholic Church
independent from the pope. Mgr Jia Zhiguo lives near Zhengding cathedral
and is monitored day and night. He is often taken away for a week or two
of holiday  i.e. classes of indoctrination and brainwashing  to convince
him to join the CPCA.

Despite this, it is amazing, said a nun, that so many people could
gather for so long and no one was arrested. It is likely that there were
plainclothes police mingled with the crowd, but nothing happened. A procession
followed by a series of readings from Misericordiae Vultus, Pope Francis
Bull of Indiction of the Jubilee of Mercy, preceded the solemn opening
of the Holy Door in Zhengding. A single Eucharistic ceremony followed the
door opening.

For years, the Chinese government has been trying to eliminate unregistered
underground communities, whose crime is that of engaging in unsupervised
religious activities. For this reason, priests involved in underground
services are often imprisoned. In recent months, many underground priests
and bishops have come under strong pressure to join the CPCA, through enticements
and offers of money. Despite the constant monitoring to which he is subjected,
Mgr Jia Zhiguo is well liked by the police as well as the population. For
a long time, he hosted at his residence about 200 abandoned children and
disabled people, taking care of them along with some nuns and faithful.
(AsiaNews)

WATCH The Amazing Copts Filled With Joy For The 21
Martyred Copts

By Shoebat Foundation on February 20, 2015 in General, Featured
By Walid Shoebat

Imagine thanking the killers of two of your brothers who were beheaded
and video taped for the whole world to watch the barberic cruelty. Yet,
this is exactly what the brother of two of the 21 Coptic Christians did
when ISIS murdered both of them in Libya last week. With amazing grace
comes amazing faith. Speaking on a live prayer and worship programme Beshir
Kamel said that he was proud of his brothers Bishoy Estafanos Kamel (25)
and Samuel Estafanos Kamel (23) because they were a badge of honour to
Christianity.

Harrowing scenes of the murders have been seen around the world. The
last words of some of those killed were Ya Rabbi Yasou (My Lord Jesus
Christ).

The amazing faith of Beshir Kamel even gave thanks, not just to God
and Christ, but also to ISIS for not editing out the mens declaration
of belief in Christ because he said this had strengthened not only his
own faith but the families of the ex-patriate workers were congratulating
one another and not in despair: We are proud to have this number of people
from our village who have become martyrs, he told the programme.

Kamel expressed the story of the Copts: Since the Roman era, Christians
have been martyred and have learned to handle everything that comes our
way. This only makes us stronger in our faith because the Bible told us
to love our enemies and bless those who curse us.

But such faith is not void of strength and the view that militarism
is also necessary. Kamel welcomed the air strikes launched in response
by the Egyptian government, saying: Only the length of the time period
when we didnt know where they were justified the air strikes for us. If
they had been martyred on the same day they were kidnapped, we wouldnt
have asked for any retaliation.

Asked by host Maher Fayez what he would say if he were asked to forgive
ISIS, he related what his mother said she would do if she saw one of the
men who killed her son. My mother, an uneducated woman in her sixties,
said she would ask [him] to enter her house and ask God to open his eyes
because he was the reason her son entered the kingdom of heaven.

And if you think this is only him. Shoebat.com has reviewed interviews
of several family members of the martyred Copts and pretty much all of
them, young and old were so glad at the news.

For example, Habib Lami the uncle of one of the martyrs Samuel, as
much as the interviewer asks him questions, his response always divert
to we thank Christ so much for they are absent from the body and present
with Christ. Both the interviewer and the family are in complete joy.

I sent congratulations and not condolences to the families of the martyrs.

Samuel had two boys and a girl.
When we saw the video we were filled with joy. They were like lions,
none of them left their faith. We thank God. we are so glad. They are
with Christ. We thank the Lord. They went to the eternal joy. We were
tired when we did not know, but we were filled with joy when we found out
they were heroic.

And just as Kamel who invited to pray for his brothers killers, Beshir
prayed: Dear God, please open their eyes to be saved and to quit their
ignorance and the wrong teachings they were taught. Lami said It is
as if Christ has opened the heavens for them and He said come up hither
or why else they would all be kneeling firmly with joy and firmness in
their faith. The myth that Muslims desire martyrdom is busted when one
sees the Copts. It is through our martyrdom that eyes are opened, so ISIS,
you can take our lives but you cannot take our souls. In fact, our martyrdom
will be the means to open the eyes of thousands others, so their souls
too can be saved.

We pray that we are next, please O Lord.

Mother of Coptic Christian Beheaded by ISIS: I Thank
God He Kept Faith, Died for Cross

BY BRIAN SPROWL
March 24, 2015
A girl holds up a poster with pictures of the 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians
beheaded by Islamic State in Libya, as they gather in a gesture to show
their solidarity, in front of the Egyptian embassy in Amman February 17,
2015.

The mother of an Egyptian Copt who was among the 21 Christians beheaded
by ISIS in February said she is thankful that her son kept his faith until
the end.

Milad Makeen Zaky's mother described her son's faith and bravery in
a video posted on Christian ministry International Christian Concern's
Facebook page last week. ICC recorded the video in Upper Egypt shortly
after ISIS released the video of the beheadings on Feb. 15. In the ICC
video, Zaky's mother called her son a martyr and expressed that she is
proud in how he carried himself in the face of adversity.

"I thank God that my son kept the faith and died for the cross, because
he was the son of Christ from his birth, not my son," said Zaky's mother.
She continued in the short video by talking about her son's upbringing
in the church, and his personal journey abroad because he had struggled
to find work in Egypt, which ultimately led him to Libya.

"From his childhood he was going to Sunday school, reading the Holy
Bible, attending the prayer meetings in the church community," she told
the camera.

While some might see the words of Zaky's mother as an act of defiance
in the face of danger, Todd Daniels, regional manager for the Middle East
sector of the ICC, told The Christian Post that he thinks the exact opposite.

"The testimony of hope in the midst of suffering is a testament to the
value of the faith for which her son died," said Daniels via email on Monday.
"This is the message the world needs to see, what the Christian world needs
to see."

According to Daniels, like Zaky's mother, the families of the other
20 victims take great pride in the faith that their loved ones maintained
until the end.

Zaky, along with 20 others, was beheaded at an unknown time on a beach
in Libya, but the video of the beheading was released last month. Zaky
was a part of Egypt's Coptic Christian minority. In the video entitled
"A Message Signed With Blood to the Nation of the Cross," all 21 Christians
were pushed to the ground and beheaded after a short speech that included
a reference to Osama bin Laden.

For months, ISIS has been terrorizing people overseas in an effort to
convert others to Islam. They have kidnapped, assaulted and killed thousands.
The group has disfigured women by pouring acid on them, used mentally challenged
children as suicide bombers and cut off the hands of women who were caught
using their cellphones. They have routinely recorded videos of mass beheadings
and released them via social media for the public to see.

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has urged members of the Charismatic Renewal
to "walk in the newness of life."

In a Message sent on Saturday through the Secretary of State, Cardinal
Pietro Parolin, the Holy Father called on participants of the 39th Conference
of the Rinnovamento nello Spirito ("Renewal of the Spirit") taking place
in Rimini, Italy, to "walk in the newness of life, and, made fruitful by
personal and communitarian charismatic prayer, contribute with the renewing
power of the Gospel to the Christian animation of the secular city."

The Message said Pope Francis "invokes the abundant gifts of the divine
Spirit" on all the groups, communities, and the entire Movement.

Vice: Experts claim to have found a Sodom-like city
The ancient biblical city of sin Sodom may have been found in Jordan,
a team of archaeologists claim. A dig in the Middle Eastern country could
have unearthed ruins from the notorious metropolis of vice.

Experts excavating the site, in Tall el Hammam, say they have discovered
a Bronze Age city-state that matches "every Sodom criterion". According
to the book of Genesis, God consumed Sodom and neighbouring Gomorrah
with fire and brimstone due to their resident's depraved behaviour.

Has this archaeologist found the biblical city of Sodom? The names of
the cities have since become bywords for sin and vice. Steven Collins and
his team have been digging at the huge site for a decade, and have found
evidence of various palatial buildings. He told Popular Archaeology : "I
concluded that if one wanted to find Sodom, then one should look for the
largest city on the eastern Kikkar that existed during the Middle Bronze
Age, the time of Abraham and Lot. Brimstone: Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed
by God, according to the Bible "When we explored the area, the choice of
Tall el Hammam as the site of Sodom was virtually a no-brainer since it
was at least five to 10 times larger than all the other Bronze Age sites
in the entire region."

The site is in the Jordan valley, close to the Dead Sea. It appears
to have consisted of an upper and lower city - where inhabitants would
live according to their wealth. The remains of defensive walls 10 metres
high and five metres thick have been found. Some of the defense structures
are thought to have towered 30 metres high. Mr Collins added: "It was a
huge undertaking, requiring millions of bricks and, obviously, large numbers
of labourers.

"It was an impressive and formidable defensive system protecting the
residences of the wealthier citizens of the city, including the king's
palace and related temples and administrative buildings. "The remains of
a "Red Palace" in the upper city have been discovered. Life in the city
appears to have come to a sudden halt, and 'Sodom' appears to have been
abandoned for 700 years.

Full Texts of All of Pope Francis Addresses During
His Visit to the U.S.

In
two speeches and a homily in Philadelphia on September 26 and 27, Pope
Francis emphasized the importance of family life. In his address to the
festival of families and vigil of prayer at the Benjamin Franklin Parkway
in Philadelphia on the evening of September 26, Pope Francis emphasized
that the family is part of Gods plan, both at creation and in the Incarnation:
God did not want to come into the world other than through a family. God
did not want to draw near to humanity other than through a home. God did
not want any other name for himself than Emmanuel (cf. Mt 1:23). He is
God with us. This was his desire from the beginning, his purpose, his
constant effort: to say to us: I am God with you, I am God for you.

He is the God who from the very beginning of creation said: It is not
good for man to be alone (Gen 2:18). We can add: it is not good for woman
to be alone, it is not good for children, the elderly or the young to be
alone. It is not good. That is why a man leaves his father and mother,
and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one flesh (cf. Gen 2:24).
The two are meant to be a home, a family. From time immemorial, in the
depths of our heart, we have heard those powerful words: it is not good
for you to be alone. The family is the great blessing, the great gift of
this God with us, who did not want to abandon us to the solitude of a
life without others, without challenges, without a home.

The following morning, Pope Francis met with bishops taking part in
the World Meeting of Families. Addressing them at St. Charles Borromeo
Seminary in Philadelphia, he said that fostering appreciation for the gift
of the family is the foremost pastoral challenge of our changing times
and warned about the effects of the consumerist mentality: The result is
a culture which discards everything that is no longer useful or satisfying
for the tastes of the consumer. We have turned our society into a
huge multicultural showcase tied only to the tastes of certain consumers,
while so many others only eat the crumbs which fall from their masters
table (Mt 15:27). This causes great harm. I would say that at the
root of so many contemporary situations is a kind of impoverishment born
of a widespread and radical sense of loneliness. Running after the
latest fad, accumulating friends on one of the social networks, we get
caught up in what contemporary society has to offer. Loneliness with
fear of commitment in a limitless effort to feel recognized.

As pastors, we bishops are called to collect our energies and to rebuild
enthusiasm for making families correspond ever more fully to the blessing
of God which they are! the Pope continued. We need to invest our energies
not so much in rehearsing the problems of the world around us and the merits
of Christianity, but in extending a sincere invitation to young people
to be brave and to opt for marriage and the family. Here too, we
need a bit of holy parrhesia [boldness]!

On the afternoon of September 27, Pope Francis returned to the Benjamin
Franklin Parkway and celebrated the concluding Mass for the World Meeting
of Families. The Associated Press estimated the size of the crowd in the
hundreds of thousands. In his homily, he emphasized the importance of little
gestures within family life: [L]ike happiness, holiness is always tied
to little gestures. Whoever gives you a cup of water in my name
will not go unrewarded, says Jesus (cf. Mk 9:41). These little gestures
are those we learn at home, in the family; they get lost amid all the other
things we do, yet they do make each day different.

They are the quiet things done by mothers and grandmothers, by fathers
and grandfathers, by children. They are little signs of tenderness,
affection and compassion. Like the warm supper we look forward to
at night, the early lunch awaiting someone who gets up early to go to work.
Homely gestures. Like a blessing before we go to bed, or a hug after
we return from a hard days work. Love is shown by little things,
by attention to small daily signs which make us feel at home. Faith
grows when it is lived and shaped by love. That is why our families,
our homes, are true domestic churches. They are the right place for faith
to become life, and life to become faith.

Full Text: Pope Francis' address to the United Nations
General AssemblyWashington D.C., 25 Sep 2015
Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen,Thank you for your kind words.

Once again, following a tradition by which I feel honored, the Secretary
General of the United Nations has invited the Pope to address this distinguished
assembly of nations. In my own name, and that of the entire Catholic community,
I wish to express to you, Mr Ban Ki-moon, my heartfelt gratitude. I greet
the Heads of State and Heads of Government present, as well as the ambassadors,
diplomats and political and technical officials accompanying them, the
personnel of the United Nations engaged in this 70th Session of the General
Assembly, the personnel of the various programs and agencies of the United
Nations family, and all those who, in one way or another, take part in
this meeting. Through you, I also greet the citizens of all the nations
represented in this hall. I thank you, each and all, for your efforts in
the service of mankind.
This is the fifth time that a Pope has visited the United Nations.
I follow in the footsteps of my predecessors Paul VI, in1965, John Paul
II, in 1979 and 1995, and my most recent predecessor, now Pope Emeritus
Benedict XVI, in 2008. All of them expressed their great esteem for the
Organization, which they considered the appropriate juridical and political
response to this present moment of history, marked by our technical ability
to overcome distances and frontiers and, apparently, to overcome all natural
limits to the exercise of power. An essential response, inasmuch as technological
power, in the hands of nationalistic or falsely universalist ideologies,
is capable of perpetrating tremendous atrocities. I can only reiterate
the appreciation expressed by my predecessors, in reaffirming the importance
which the Catholic Church attaches to this Institution and the hope which
she places in its activities.
The United Nations is presently celebrating its seventieth anniversary.
The history of this organized community of states is one of important common
achievements over a period of unusually fast-paced changes. Without claiming
to be exhaustive, we can mention the codification and development of international
law, the establishment of international norms regarding human rights, advances
in humanitarian law, the resolution of numerous conflicts, operations of
peace-keeping and reconciliation, and any number of other accomplishments
in every area of international activity and endeavour. All these achievements
are lights which help to dispel the darkness of the disorder caused by
unrestrained ambitions and collective forms of selfishness. Certainly,
many grave problems remain to be resolved, yet it is clear that, without
all those interventions on the international level, mankind would not have
been able to survive the unchecked use of its own possibilities. Every
one of these political, juridical and technical advances is a path towards
attaining the ideal of human fraternity and a means for its greater For
this reason I pay homage to all those men and women whose loyalty and self-sacrifice
have benefitted humanity as a whole in these past seventy years. In particular,
I would recall today those who gave their lives for peace and reconciliation
among peoples, from Dag Hammarskjöld to the many United Nations officials
at every level who have been killed in the course of humanitarian missions,
and missions of peace and reconciliation.

Beyond these achievements, the experience of the past seventy years
has made it clear that reform nd adaptation to the times is always necessary
in the pursuit of the ultimate goal of granting all countries, without
exception, a share in, and a genuine and equitable influence on, decision-making
processes. The need for greater equity is especially true in the case of
those bodies with effective executive capability, such as the Security
Council, the Financial Agencies and the groups or mechanisms specifically
created to deal with economic crises. This will help limit every kind of
abuse or usury, especially where developing countries are concerned. The
International Financial Agencies are should care for the sustainable development
of countries and should ensure that they are not subjected to oppressive
lending systems which, far from promoting progress, subject people to mechanisms
which generate greater poverty, exclusion and dependence.
The work of the United Nations, according to the principles set forth
in the Preamble and the first Articles of its founding Charter, can be
seen as the development and promotion of the rule of law, based on the
realization that justice is an essential condition for achieving the ideal
of universal fraternity. In this context, it is helpful to recall that
the limitation of power is an idea implicit in the concept of law itself.
To give to each his own, to cite the classic definition of justice, means
that no human individual or group can consider itself absolute, permitted
to bypass the dignity and the rights of other individuals or their social
groupings. The effective distribution of power (political, economic, defense-related,
technological, etc.) among a plurality of subjects, and the creation of
a juridical system for regulating claims and interests, are one concrete
way of limiting power. Yet todays world presents us with many false rights
and  at the same time  broad sectors which are vulnerable, victims of
power badly exercised: for example, the natural environment and the vast
ranks of the excluded. These sectors are closely interconnected and made
increasingly fragile by dominant political and economic relationships.
That is why their rights must be forcefully affirmed, by working to
protect the environment and by putting an end to exclusion.

First, it must be stated that a true right of the environment does
exist, for two reasons. First, because we human beings are part of the
environment. We live in communion with it, since the environment itself
entails ethical limits which human activity must acknowledge and respect.
Man, for all his remarkable gifts, which are signs of a uniqueness which
transcends the spheres of physics and biology (Laudato Si, 81), is at
the same time a part of these spheres. He possesses a body shaped by physical,
chemical and biological elements, and can only survive and develop if the
ecological environment is favourable. Any harm done to the environment,
therefore, is harm done to humanity.
Second, because every creature, particularly a living creature, has
an intrinsic value, in its existence, its life, its beauty and its interdependence
with other creatures. We Christians, together with the other monotheistic
religions, believe that the universe is the fruit of a loving decision
by the Creator, who permits man respectfully to use creation for the good
of his fellow men and for the glory of the Creator; he is not authorized
to abuse it, much less to destroy it. In all religions, the environment
is a fundamental The misuse and destruction of the environment are also
accompanied by a relentless process of exclusion. In effect, a selfish
and boundless thirst for power and material prosperity leads both to the
misuse of available natural resources and to the exclusion of the weak
and disadvantaged, either because they are differently abled (handicapped),
or because they lack adequate information and technical expertise, or are
incapable of decisive political action. Economic and social exclusion is
a complete denial of human fraternity and a grave offense against human
rights and the environment. The poorest are those who suffer most from
such offenses, for three serious reasons: they are cast off by society,
forced to live off what is discarded and suffer unjustly from the abuse
of the environment. They are part of todays widespread and quietly growing
culture of waste.
The dramatic reality this whole situation of exclusion and inequality,
with its evident effects, has led me, in union with the entire Christian
people and many others, to take stock of my grave responsibility in this
regard and to speak out, together with all those who are seeking urgently-needed
and effective solutions. The adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development at the World Summit, which opens today, is an important sign
of hope. I am similarly confident that the Paris Conference on Climatic
Change will secure fundamental and effective agreements.
Solemn commitments, however, are not enough, even though they are a
necessary step toward solutions. The classic definition of justice which
I mentioned earlier contains as one of its essential elements a constant
and perpetual will: Iustitia est constans et perpetua voluntas ius sum
cuique tribuendi. Our world demands of all government leaders a will which
is effective, practical and constant, concrete steps and immediate measures
for preserving and improving the natural environment and thus putting an
end as quickly as possible to the phenomenon of social and economic exclusion,
with its baneful consequences: human trafficking, the marketing of human
organs and tissues, the sexual exploitation of boys and girls, slave labour,
including prostitution, the drug and weapons trade, terrorism and international
organized crime. Such is the magnitude of these situations and their toll
in innocent lives, that we must avoid every temptation to fall into a declarationist
nominalism which would assuage our consciences. We need to ensure that
our institutions are truly effective in the struggle against all these
The number and complexity of the problems require that we possess technical
instruments of verification. But this involves two risks. We can rest content
with the bureaucratic exercise of drawing up long lists of good proposals
 goals, objectives and statistical indicators  or we can think that a
single theoretical and aprioristic solution will provide an answer to all
the challenges. It must never be forgotten that political and economic
activity is only effective when it is understood as a prudential activity,
guided by a perennial concept of justice and constantly conscious of the
fact that, above and beyond our plans and programmes, we are dealing with
real men and women who live, struggle and suffer, and are often forced
to live in great poverty, deprived of all rights.

To enable these real men and women to escape from extreme poverty, we
must allow them to be dignified agents of their own destiny. Integral human
development and the full exercise of human dignity cannot be imposed. They
must be built up and allowed to unfold for each individual, for every family,
in communion with others, and in a right relationship with all those areas
in which human social life develops  friends, communities, towns and cities,
schools, businesses and unions, provinces, nations, etc.
This presupposes and requires the right to education  also for girls
(excluded in certain places)  which is ensured first and foremost by respecting
and reinforcing the primary right of the family to educate its children,
as well as the right of churches and social groups to support and assist
families in the education of their children. Education conceived in this
way is the basis for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and for reclaiming
the environment.
At the same time, government leaders must do everything possible to
ensure that all can have the minimum spiritual and material means needed
to live in dignity and to create and support a family, which is the primary
cell of any social development. In practical terms, this absolute minimum
has three names: lodging, labour, and land; and one spiritual name: spiritual
freedom, which includes religious freedom, the right to education and other
civil rights.
For all this, the simplest and best measure and indicator of the implementation
of the new Agenda for development will be effective, practical and immediate
access, on the part of all, to essential material and spiritual goods:
housing, dignified and properly remunerated employment, adequate food and
drinking water; religious freedom and, more generally, spiritual freedom
and education. These pillars of integral human development have a common
foundation, which is the right to life and, more generally, what we could
call the right to existence of human nature itself.
The ecological crisis, and the large-scale destruction of biodiversity,
can threaten the very existence of the human species. The baneful consequences
of an irresponsible mismanagement of the global economy, guided only by
ambition for wealth and power, must serve as a summons to a forthright
reflection on man: man is not only a freedom which he creates for himself.
Man does not create himself.
He is spirit and will, but also nature (BENEDICT XVI, Address to the
Bundestag, 22 September 2011, cited in Laudato Si, 6). Creation is compromised
where we ourselves have the final word... The misuse of creation begins
when we no longer recognize any instance above ourselves, when we see nothing
else but ourselves (ID. Address to the Clergy of the Diocese of Bolzano-Bressanone,
6 August 2008, cited ibid.). Consequently, the defence of the environment
and the fight against exclusion demand that we recognize a moral law written
into human nature itself, one which includes the natural difference between
man and woman (cf. Laudato Si, 155), and absolute respect for life in
all its stages and dimensions (cf.

Without the recognition of certain incontestable natural ethical limits
and without the immediate implementation of those pillars of integral human
development, the ideal of saving succeeding generations from the scourge
of war (Charter of the United Nations, Preamble), and promoting social
progress and better standards of life in larger freedom (ibid.), risks
becoming an unattainable illusion, or, even worse, idle chatter which serves
as a cover for all kinds of abuse and corruption, or for carrying out an
ideological colonization by the imposition of anomalous models and lifestyles
which are alien to peoples identity and, in the end, irresponsible.
War is the negation of all rights and a dramatic assault on the environment.
If we want true integral human development for all, we must work tirelessly
to avoid war between nations and between To this end, there is a need to
ensure the uncontested rule of law and tireless recourse to negotiation,
mediation and arbitration, as proposed by the Charter of the United Nations,
which constitutes truly a fundamental juridical norm. The experience of
these seventy years since the founding of the United Nations in general,
and in particular the experience of these first fifteen years of the third
millennium, reveal both the effectiveness of the full application of international
norms and the ineffectiveness of their lack of enforcement. When the Charter
of the United Nations is respected and applied with transparency and sincerity,
and without ulterior motives, as an obligatory reference point of justice
and not as a means of masking spurious intentions, peaceful results will
be obtained. When, on the other hand, the norm is considered simply as
an instrument to be used whenever it proves favourable, and to be avoided
when it is not, a true Pandoras box is opened, releasing uncontrollable
forces which gravely harm defenseless populations, the cultural milieu
and even the biological environment.
The Preamble and the first Article of the Charter of the United Nations
set forth the foundations of the international juridical framework: peace,
the pacific solution of disputes and the development of friendly relations
between the nations. Strongly opposed to such statements, and in practice
denying them, is the constant tendency to the proliferation of arms, especially
weapons of mass distraction, such as nuclear weapons. An ethics and a law
based on the threat of mutual destruction  and possibly the destruction
of all mankind  are self-contradictory and an affront to the entire framework
of the United Nations, which would end up as nations united by fear and
distrust. There is urgent need to work for a world free of nuclear weapons,
in full application of the non-proliferation Treaty, in letter and spirit,
with the goal of a complete prohibition of these weapons.
The recent agreement reached on the nuclear question in a sensitive
region of Asia and the Middle East is proof of the potential of political
good will and of law, exercised with sincerity, patience and constancy.
I express my hope that this agreement will be lasting and efficacious,
and bring forth the desired fruits with the cooperation of all the parties
involved.
In this sense, hard evidence is not lacking of the negative effects
of military and political interventions which are not coordinated between
members of the international community. For this reason, while regretting
to have to do so, I must renew my repeated appeals regarding to the painful
situation of the entire Middle East, North Africa and other African countries,
where Christians, together with other cultural or ethnic groups, and even
members of the majority religion who have no desire to be caught up in
hatred and folly, have been forced to witness the destruction of their
places of worship, their cultural and religious heritage, their houses
and property, and have faced the alternative either of fleeing or of paying
for their adhesion to good and to peace by their own lives, or by enslavement.

These realities should serve as a grave summons to an examination of
conscience on the part of those charged with the conduct of international
affairs. Not only in cases of religious or cultural persecution, but in
every situation of conflict, as in Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, Libya, South Sudan
and the Great Lakes region, real human beings take precedence over partisan
interests, however legitimate the latter may be. In wars and conflicts
there are individual persons, our brothers and sisters, men and women,
young and old, boys and girls who weep, suffer and die. Human beings who
are easily discarded when our only response is to draw up lists of problems,
strategies and disagreements.
As I wrote in my letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations
on 9 August 2014, the most basic understanding of human dignity compels
the international community, particularly through the norms and mechanisms
of international law, to do all that it can to stop and to prevent further
systematic violence against ethnic and religious minorities and to protect
innocent peoples.
Along the same lines I would mention another kind of conflict which
is not always so open, yet is silently killing millions of people. Another
kind of war experienced by many of our societies as a result of the narcotics
trade. A war which is taken for granted and poorly fought. Drug trafficking
is by its very nature accompanied by trafficking in persons, money laundering,
the arms trade, child exploitation and other forms of corruption. A corruption
which has penetrated to different levels of social, political, military,
artistic and religious life, and, in many cases, has given rise to a parallel
structure which threatens the credibility of our institutions.
I began this speech recalling the visits of my predecessors. I would
hope that my words will be taken above all as a continuation of the final
words of the address of Pope Paul VI; although spoken almost exactly fifty
years ago, they remain ever timely. The hour has come when a pause, a
moment of recollection, reflection, even of prayer, is absolutely needed
so that we may think back over our common origin, our history, our common
destiny. The appeal to the moral conscience of man has never been as necessary
as it is today... For the danger comes neither from progress nor from science;
if these are used well, they can help to solve a great number of the serious
problems besetting mankind (Address to the United Nations Organization,
4 October 1965). Among other things, human genius, well applied, will surely
help to meet the grave challenges of ecological deterioration and of exclusion.
As Paul VI said: The real danger comes from man, who has at his disposal
ever more powerful instruments that are as well fitted to bring about ruin
as they are to achieve lofty conquests (ibid.).
The common home of all men and women must continue to rise on the foundations
of a right understanding of universal fraternity and respect for the sacredness
of every human life, of every man and every woman, the poor, the elderly,
children, the infirm, the unborn, the unemployed, the abandoned, those
considered disposable because they are only considered as part of a statistic.
This common home of all men and women must also be built on the understanding
of a certain sacredness of created nature.
Such understanding and respect call for a higher degree of wisdom,
one which accepts transcendence, rejects the creation of an all-powerful
élite, and recognizes that the full meaning of individual and collective
life is found in selfless service to others and in the sage and respectful
use of creation for the common good. To repeat the words of Paul VI, the
edifice of modern civilization has to be built on spiritual principles,
for they are the only ones capable not only of supporting it, but of shedding
light on it (ibid.).

El Gaucho Martín Fierro, a classic of literature in my native
land, says: Brothers should stand by each other, because this is the first
law; keep a true bond between you always, at every time  because if you
fight among yourselves, youll be devoured by those outside.
The contemporary world, so apparently connected, is experiencing a
growing and steady social fragmentation, which places at risk the foundations
of social life and consequently leads to battles over conflicting interests
(Laudato Si, 229).
The present time invites us to give priority to actions which generate
new processes in society, so as to bear fruit in significant and positive
historical events (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 223). We cannot permit ourselves
to postpone certain agendas for the future. The future demands of us
critical and global decisions in the face of world-wide conflicts which
increase the number of the excluded and those The praiseworthy international
juridical framework of the United Nations Organization and of all its activities,
like any other human endeavour, can be improved, yet it remains necessary;
at the same time it can be the pledge of a secure and happy future for
future generations. And so it will, if the representatives of the States
can set aside partisan and ideological interests, and sincerely strive
to serve the common good. I pray to Almighty God that this will be the
case, and I assure you of my support and my prayers, and the support and
prayers of all the faithful of the Catholic Church, that this Institution,
all its member States, and each of its officials, will always render an
effective service to mankind, a service respectful of diversity and capable
of bringing out, for sake of the common good, the best in each people and
in every individual.
Upon all of you, and the peoples you represent, I invoke the blessing
of the Most High, and all peace and prosperity. Thank you.

Pope Francis' Sept. 24 address to members of the United
States CongressWashington D.C., Sep 24, 2015
Mr.
Vice-President, Mr. Speaker, Honorable Members of Congress, Dear Friends,

I am most grateful for your invitation to address this Joint Session
of Congress in the land of the free asnd the home of the brave. I would
like to think that the reason for this is that I too am a son of this great
continent, from which we have all received so much and toward which we
share a common responsibility.
Each son or daughter of a given country has a mission, a personal and
social responsibility. Your own responsibility as members of Congress is
to enable this country, by your legislative activity, to grow as a nation.
You are the face of its people, their representatives.
You are called to defend and preserve the dignity of your fellow citizens
in the tireless and demanding pursuit of the common good, for this is the
chief aim of all politics. A political society endures when it seeks, as
a vocation, to satisfy common needs by stimulating the growth of all its
members, especially those in situations of greater vulnerability or risk.
Legislative activity is always based on care for the people. To this you
have been invited, called and convened by those who elected you.
Yours is a work which makes me reflect in two ways on the figure of
Moses. On the one hand, the patriarch and lawgiver of the people of Israel
symbolizes the need of peoples to keep alive their sense of unity by means
of just legislation. On the other, the figure of Moses leads us directly
to God and thus to the transcendent dignity of the human being. Moses provides
us with a good synthesis of your work: you are asked to protect, by means
of the law, the image and likeness fashioned by God on every human face.

Today I would like not only to address you, but through you the entire
people of the United States. Here, together with their representatives,
I would like to take this opportunity to dialogue with the many thousands
of men and women who strive each day to do an honest days work, to bring
home their daily bread, to save money and one step at a time  to build
a better life for their families. These are men and women who are not concerned
simply with paying their taxes, but in their own quiet way sustain the
life of society. They generate solidarity by their actions, and they create
organizations which offer a helping hand to those most in need.
I would also like to enter into dialogue with the many elderly persons
who are a storehouse of wisdom forged by experience, and who seek in many
ways, especially through volunteer work, to share their stories and their
insights. I know that many of them are retired, but still active; they
keep working to build up this land. I also want to dialogue with all those
young people who are working to realize their great and noble aspirations,
who are not led astray by facile proposals, and who face difficult situations,
often as a result of immaturity on the part of many adults. I wish to dialogue
with all of you, and I would like to do so through the historical memory
of your people.
My visit takes place at a time when men and women of good will are
marking the anniversaries of several great Americans. The complexities
of history and the reality of human weakness notwithstanding, these men
and women, for all their many differences and limitations, were able by
hard work and self- sacrifice  some at the cost of their lives  to build
a better future. They shaped fundamental values which will endure forever
in the spirit of the American people. A people with this spirit can live
through many crises, tensions and conflicts, while always finding the resources
to move forward, and to do so with dignity. These men and women offer us
a way of seeing and interpreting reality. In honoring their memory, we
are inspired, even amid conflicts, and in the here and now of each day,
to draw upon our deepest cultural reserves.

I would like to mention four of these Americans: Abraham Lincoln, Martin
Luther King, Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton.
This year marks the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the assassination
of President Abraham Lincoln, the guardian of liberty, who labored tirelessly
that this nation, under God, [might] have a new birth of freedom. Building
a future of freedom requires love of the common good and cooperation in
a spirit of subsidiarity and solidarity.
All of us are quite aware of, and deeply worried by, the disturbing
social and political situation of the world today. Our world is increasingly
a place of violent conflict, hatred and brutal atrocities, committed even
in the name of God and of religion. We know that no religion is immune
from forms of individual delusion or ideological extremism. This means
that we must be especially attentive to every type of fundamentalism, whether
religious or of any other kind. A delicate balance is required to combat
violence perpetrated in the name of a religion, an ideology or an economic
system, while also safeguarding religious freedom, intellectual freedom
and individual freedoms. But there is another temptation which we must
especially guard against: the simplistic reductionism which sees only good
or evil; or, if you will, the righteous and sinners. The contemporary world,
with its open wounds which affect so many of our brothers and sisters,
demands that we confront every form of polarization which would divide
it into these two camps. We know that in the attempt to be freed of the
enemy without, we can be tempted to feed the enemy within. To imitate the
hatred and violence of tyrants and murderers is the best way to take their
place. That is something which you, as a people, reject.
Our response must instead be one of hope and healing, of peace and
justice. We are asked to summon the courage and the intelligence to resolve
todays many geopolitical and economic crises. Even in the developed world,
the effects of unjust structures and actions are all too apparent. Our
efforts must aim at restoring hope, righting wrongs, maintaining commitments,
and thus promoting the well-being of individuals and of peoples. We must
move forward together, as one, in a renewed spirit of fraternity and solidarity,
cooperating generously for the common good.

The challenges facing us today call for a renewal of that spirit of
cooperation, which has accomplished so much good throughout the history
of the United States. The complexity, the gravity and the urgency of these
challenges demand that we pool our resources and talents, and resolve to
support one another, with respect for our differences and our convictions
of conscience.
In this land, the various religious denominations have greatly contributed
to building and strengthening society. It is important that today, as in
the past, the voice of faith continue to be heard, for it is a voice of
fraternity and love, which tries to bring out the best in each person and
in each society. Such cooperation is a powerful resource in the battle
to eliminate new global forms of slavery, born of grave injustices which
can be overcome only through new policies and new forms of social consensus.
Here I think of the political history of the United States, where democracy
is deeply rooted in the mind of the American people. All political activity
must serve and promote the good of the human person and be based on respect
for his or her dignity. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that
all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness (Declaration of Independence, 4 July 1776). If politics
must truly be at the service of the human person, it follows that it cannot
be a slave to the economy and finance. Politics is, instead, an expression
of our compelling need to live as one, in order to build as one the greatest
common good: that of a community which sacrifices particular interests
in order to share, in justice and peace, its goods, its interests, its
social life. I do not underestimate the difficulty that this involves,
but I encourage you in this effort.
Here too I think of the march which Martin Luther King led from Selma
to Montgomery fifty years ago as part of the campaign to fulfill his dream
of full civil and political rights for African Americans. That dream continues
to inspire us all. I am happy that America continues to be, for many, a
land of dreams. Dreams which lead to action, to participation, to commitment.
Dreams which awaken what is deepest and truest in the life of a people.
In recent centuries, millions of people came to this land to pursue
their dream of building a future in freedom. We, the people of this continent,
are not fearful of foreigners, because most of us were once foreigners.
I say this to you as the son of immigrants, knowing that so many of you
are also descended from immigrants. Tragically, the rights of those who
were here long before us were not always respected. For those peoples and
their nations, from the heart of American democracy, I wish to reaffirm
my highest esteem and appreciation. Those first contacts were often turbulent
and violent, but it is difficult to judge the past by the criteria of the
present. Nonetheless, when the stranger in our midst appeals to us, we
must not repeat the sins and the errors of the past. We must resolve now
to live as nobly and as justly as possible, as we educate new generations
not to turn their back on our neighbors and everything around us. Building
a nation calls us to recognize that we must constantly relate to others,
rejecting a mindset of hostility in order to adopt one of reciprocal subsidiarity,
in a constant effort to do our best. I am confident that we can do this.

Our world is facing a refugee crisis of a magnitude not seen since the
Second World War. This presents us with great challenges and many hard
decisions. On this continent, too, thousands of persons are led to travel
north in search of a better life for themselves and for their loved ones,
in search of greater opportunities. Is this not what we want for our own
children? We must not be taken aback by their numbers, but rather view
them as persons, seeing their faces and listening to their stories, trying
to respond as best we can to their situation. To respond in a way which
is always humane, just and fraternal. We need to avoid a common temptation
nowadays: to discard whatever proves troublesome. Let us remember the Golden
Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you (Mt 7:12).
This Rule points us in a clear direction. Let us treat others with
the same passion and compassion with which we want to be treated. Let us
seek for others the same possibilities which we seek for ourselves. Let
us help others to grow, as we would like to be helped ourselves. In a word,
if we want security, let us give security; if we want life, let us give
life; if we want opportunities, let us provide opportunities. The yardstick
we use for others will be the yardstick which time will use for us. The
Golden Rule also reminds us of our responsibility to protect and defend
human life at every stage of its development.
This conviction has led me, from the beginning of my ministry, to advocate
at different levels for the global abolition of the death penalty. I am
convinced that this way is the best, since every life is sacred, every
human person is endowed with an inalienable dignity, and society can only
benefit from the rehabilitation of those convicted of crimes. Recently
my brother bishops here in the United States renewed their call for the
abolition of the death penalty. Not only do I support them, but I also
offer encouragement to all those who are convinced that a just and necessary
punishment must never exclude the dimension of hope and the goal of rehabilitation.
In these times when social concerns are so important, I cannot fail
to mention the Servant of God Dorothy Day, who founded the Catholic Worker
Movement. Her social activism, her passion for justice and for the cause
of the oppressed, were inspired by the Gospel, her faith, and the example
of the saints.

How much progress has been made in this area in so many parts of the
world! How much has been done in these first years of the third millennium
to raise people out of extreme poverty! I know that you share my conviction
that much more still needs to be done, and that in times of crisis and
economic hardship a spirit of global solidarity must not be lost. At the
same time I would encourage you to keep in mind all those people around
us who are trapped in a cycle of poverty. They too need to be given hope.
The fight against poverty and hunger must be fought constantly and on many
fronts, especially in its causes. I know that many Americans today, as
in the past, are working to deal with this problem.
It goes without saying that part of this great effort is the creation
and distribution of wealth. The right use of natural resources, the proper
application of technology and the harnessing of the spirit of enterprise
are essential elements of an economy which seeks to be modern, inclusive
and sustainable. Business is a noble vocation, directed to producing wealth
and improving the world. It can be a fruitful source of prosperity for
the area in which it operates, especially if it sees the creation of jobs
as an essential part of its service to the common good (Laudato Si, 129).
This common good also includes the earth, a central theme of the encyclical
which I recently wrote in order to enter into dialogue with all people
about our common home (ibid., 3). We need a conversation which includes
everyone, since the environmental challenge we are undergoing, and its
human roots, concern and affect us all (ibid., 14).
In Laudato Si, I call for a courageous and responsible effort to redirect
our steps (ibid., 61), and to avert the most serious effects of the environmental
deterioration caused by human activity. I am convinced that we can make
a difference and I have no doubt that the United States  and this Congress
 have an important role to play. Now is the time for courageous actions
and strategies, aimed at implementing a culture of care (ibid., 231)
and an integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to
the excluded, and at the same time protecting nature (ibid., 139). We
have the freedom needed to limit and direct technology (ibid., 112); to
devise intelligent ways of... developing and limiting our power (ibid.,
78); and to put technology at the service of another type of progress,
one which is healthier, more human, more social, more integral (ibid.,
112). In this regard, I am confident that Americas outstanding academic
and research institutions can make a vital contribution in the years ahead.

A century ago, at the beginning of the Great War, which Pope Benedict
XV termed a pointless slaughter, another notable American was born: the
Cistercian monk Thomas Merton. He remains a source of spiritual inspiration
and a guide for many people. In his autobiography he wrote: I came into
the world. Free by nature, in the image of God, I was nevertheless the
prisoner of my own violence and my own selfishness, in the image of the
world into which I was born. That world was the picture of Hell, full of
men like myself, loving God, and yet hating him; born to love him, living
instead in fear of hopeless self-contradictory hungers. Merton was above
all a man of prayer, a thinker who challenged the certitudes of his time
and opened new horizons for souls and for the Church. He was also a man
of dialogue, a promoter of peace between peoples and religions.
From this perspective of dialogue, I would like to recognize the efforts
made in recent months to help overcome historic differences linked to painful
episodes of the past. It is my duty to build bridges and to help all men
and women, in any way possible, to do the same. When countries which have
been at odds resume the path of dialogue  a dialogue which may have been
interrupted for the most legitimate of reasons  new opportunities open
up for all. This has required, and requires, courage and daring, which
is not the same as irresponsibility. A good political leader is one who,
with the interests of all in mind, seizes the moment in a spirit of openness
and pragmatism. A good political leader always opts to initiate processes
rather than possessing spaces (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 222-223).Being at
the service of dialogue and peace also means being truly determined to
minimize and, in the long term, to end the many armed conflicts throughout
our world. Here we have to ask ourselves: Why are deadly weapons being
sold to those who plan to inflict untold suffering on individuals and society?
Sadly, the answer, as we all know, is simply for money: money that is drenched
in blood, often innocent blood. In the face of this shameful and culpable
silence, it is our duty to confront the problem and to stop the arms trade.
Three sons and a daughter of this land, four individuals and four dreams:
Lincoln, liberty; Martin Luther King, liberty in plurality and non-exclusion;
Dorothy Day, social justice and the rights of persons; and Thomas Merton,
the capacity for dialogue and openness to God.

Four representatives of the American people.I will end my visit to your
country in Philadelphia, where I will take part in the World Meeting of
Families. It is my wish that throughout my visit the family should be a
recurrent theme. How essential the family has been to the building of this
country! And how worthy it remains of our support and encouragement! Yet
I cannot hide my concern for the family, which is threatened, perhaps as
never before, from within and without. Fundamental relationships are being
called into question, as is the very basis of marriage and the family.
I can only reiterate the importance and, above all, the richness and the
beauty of family life.
In particular, I would like to call attention to those family members
who are the most vulnerable, the young. For many of them, a future filled
with countless possibilities beckons, yet so many others seem disoriented
and aimless, trapped in a hopeless maze of violence, abuse and despair.
Their problems are our problems. We cannot avoid them. We need to face
them together, to talk about them and to seek effective solutions rather
than getting bogged down in discussions. At the risk of oversimplifying,
we might say that we live in a culture which pressures young people not
to start a family, because they lack possibilities for the future. Yet
this same culture presents others with so many options that they too are
dissuaded from starting a family.
A nation can be considered great when it defends liberty as Lincoln
did, when it fosters a culture which enables people to dream of full
rights for all their brothers and sisters, as Martin Luther King sought
to do; when it strives for justice and the cause of the oppressed, as Dorothy
Day did by her tireless work, the fruit of a faith which becomes dialogue
and sows peace in the contemplative style of Thomas Merton.
In these remarks I have sought to present some of the richness of your
cultural heritage, of the spirit of the American people. It is my desire
that this spirit continue to develop and grow, so that as many young people
as possible can inherit and dwell in a land which has inspired so many
people to dream.

God bless America!

Pope Francis warns of danger of ISIS infiltration amid
refugee crisisMonday, 14 Sep 2015
Francis raised his concerns about the terrorist threat during an interview
with a Portuguese radio station

As thousands of refugees attempt to reach Europe, Pope Francis has acknowledged
the danger of infiltration by ISIS terrorists. Its true, I recognise
that, nowadays, border safety conditions are not what they once were. The
truth is that just 400 kilometres from Sicily there is an incredibly cruel
terrorist group. So there is a danger of infiltration, this is true, the
Pope said during an interview with Portuguese radio station Radio Renascença.

He added that nobody said Rome would be immune to this threat. The
Pope went on to say that if a refugee arrives, despite all the safety
precautions, we must welcome him, because this is a commandment from the
Bible. However, he also said that we cant be simplistic over the way
to handle the migrants and asylum seekers, referring to Europes very
big Labour crisis. During the wide-ranging interview, Pope Francis also
re-iterated his call for parishes and Catholic institutions to take in
refugee families.

What I asked was that in each parish and each religious institute,
every monastery, should take in one family. A family, not just one person.
A family gives more guarantees of security and containment, so as to avoid
infiltrations of another kind, he said. When I say that a parish should
welcome a family, I dont mean that they should go and live in the priests
house, in the rectory, but that each parish community should see if there
is a place, a corner in the school which can be turned into a small apartment
or, if necessary, that they may rent a small apartment for this family;
but that they should be provided with a roof, welcomed and integrated into
the community There are convents which are almost empty.

The Pope added that two families that the Vatican plan to take in have
already been identified and the two Vatican parishes have undertaken to
go and search for them. Francis also briefly discussed the upcoming synod
on the family, which will take place next month. At the synod we will
be speaking about all the possible ways to help these families, he said.
But one thing should be very clear  something Pope Benedict left quite
clear: people who are in a second union are not excommunicated and should
be integrated into Church life.

When asked about his global popularity, Francis responded that he hopes
the peace in his heart will be maintained.

Crosses exist. You cant see them, but they are there, he said. Jesus
also, for a certain time, was very popular, and look at how that turned
out. So nobody has their happiness guaranteed in this world. The only thing
I ask is that this peace in my heart be maintained and that He keep me
in his Grace, because, until the last moment we are sinners and we can
renounce his Grace.

Pope calls on every European parish to welcome a refugee
family

Catholic World News - September 07, 2015
Following his September 6 Angelus address, Pope Francis appealed to
every parish, every religious community, every monastery, every shrine
of Europe to show mercy to refugee family.

Faced with the tragedy of tens of thousands of refugees who flee death
from war and hunger, and who have begun a journey moved by vital hope,
the Gospel calls us to be neighbors of the weakest and the abandoned,
to give them concrete hope, he said. Its not enough to say, Take heart.
Be patient.

Therefore, before the upcoming Jubilee of Mercy, I make an appeal to
parishes, religious communities, monasteries and shrines of all Europe,
that they give expression to an application of the Gospel and welcome a
family of refugees, he continued. I address my brother bishops of Europe,
true pastors, so that in their dioceses they back my appeal, remembering
that Mercy is the second name of Love: What you have done for the least
of my brothers, that you have done for me. The two parishes of the Vatican
will also in the coming days welcome two families of refugees.

Statue
of the Virgin Mary is Left Miraculously Intact After Fire

A violent
fire at a military base near Madrid spared nothing except a small statue
and surrounding vegetationAugust 24, 2015

The events took place at the El Goloso military base, located near the
Spanish capital, seat of the nation's armored infantry brigade "Guadarrama."
According to several Spanish news sites, including Infovaticana and Religión
en Libertad, a fire broke out that was impossible to control, burning most
of the surrounding vegetation.

Once the flames were extinguished, to the soldiers surprise,
in the middle of the charred area, stood a statue of Our Lady of Lourdestotally
undamaged! What's more, the soldiers were shocked to see that the grass
near the statue had not been touched by the flames and that it was even
still surrounded by vases filled with flowers, also intact, as if the flames
had respected the space around the statue.

The fire took place on July 30, in the middle of the heat wave
which had descended upon Spain. The soldiers could not explain why the
statue had suffered no damage nor why the flowers had not even been blackened
or withered by the heat. The story quickly spread though social networks,
some suspecting a fraud, but further investigations have dispelled all
possible doubts. In the photographs, one can easily see that the ground
is completely burnt, except near the statue.

Indeed, for the most part, the soldiers on the base did not know
that there was a statue of the Virgin in their garden. However, some of
them who had a special devotion to Mother Mary had recommended themselves
to this representation of Our Lady of Lourdes. And, the statue had already
participated in official ceremonies at the military base.

The local authorities investigation seems sufficient to clarify
the natural aspects of the event. There are realities that human knowledge
cannot understand but that faith explains. And human science and faith,
working together, offer some explanation.

Still, this story reveals Our Ladys special protection of this
statue, however simple and unpretentious. And everyone can learn a lesson
from this. Unexpected events may occur that set fire to a world full of
threats and evils. In the near future, in the midst of disasters that we
cannot even imagine, Our Ladyespecially Our Lady of Lourdeswill go through
them, fearless and untouched, with the symbols of the devotion of the faithful.
And those who believe, even if they are a minority discredited by the atheist
or unbelieving majority, will be recognized amid the tragedy as Heavens
beloved children.

The
Jehovah's Witnesses Church in Australia failed to report to police more
than 1,000 cases of child sexual abuse going back more than 60 years, a
government investigation into abuse and its aftermath heard on Monday.
Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual
Abuse, which was launched in 2013 amid allegations of serial child abuse
inside the Catholic Church in Australia, has a broad mandate to examine
religious and secular organizations.

At the opening hearing into the Jehovah's Witnesses on Monday, Angus
Stewart, senior council assisting the commission, described the church
as an insular sect with rules designed to stem the reporting of sexual
abuse
"Evidence will be put before the Royal Commission that of the 1,006
alleged perpetrators of child sexual abuse identified by the Jehovahs
Witness Church since 1950, not one was reported by the church to secular
authorities," he said. "This suggests that it is the practice of the Jehovahs
Witness church to retain information regarding child sexual abuse offences
but not to report allegations of child sexual abuse to the police or other
relevant authorities."

The U.S.-based Jehovah's Witnesses number about 8 million worldwide
and are known for their foreign ministries as well as their door-to-door
campaigns. There are about 68,000 members in Australia, Stewart said. Two
church members, identified as BCB and BCG, are expected to give testimony
containing allegations that they were discouraged by church elders from
reporting their abuse. Stewart outlined multiple institutional failures
to protect children or censure alleged abusers, including doctrine releasing
church elders from their responsibility to report abuse where there was
no mandatory legal obligation to do so. Although the church expelled 401
members after internal abuse hearings, it allowed 230 of them to return
to the fold. Thirty-five were welcomed back on multiple occasions.

The church also erected high barriers to its internal process, requiring
that two or more witnesses be produced before proceeding to a church "judicial
committee". This blocked 125 allegations from being heard, Stewart said.
The royal commission has kept Australians riveted with airings of abuse
allegations and cover-ups in the highest ranks of its Orthodox Jewish and
Roman Catholic communities going back decades. They have reached even into
the Vatican, where Australian Cardinal George Pell, now in charge of reforming
the Vatican's economic departments, has come under scrutiny over allegations
he failed to take action to protect children years ago. Pell dismissed
as "false", and "outrageous" allegations heard before the commission that
he had little regard for victims.

The Holy Synod of the Greek Orthodox Church reacted to the UNs decision
to designate June 21 as International Day of Yoga in 2014. The Holy Synods
statement says that the practice of yoga has no place in the lives of
Christians since it is a fundamental aspect of Hinduism and as such is
not considered a form of exercise but of worship!

Though praised for its calming effect and wellness, Christians are urged
to seek the same comfort in God  not hindu practises. After all, the postures
of yoga were created as adulation to 330 million Hindu gods. The postures
are viewed in the Hindu faith as offerings to gods that in Christianity
are considered to be idols.

Furthermore, a third of yoga is concerned with emptying the mind  a
contradiction to what Christianity teaches. In the Christian faith, there
is free choice and transformation through renewal. Furthermore, astral
travel that yoga guides people into is a practise that the church continues
to frown upon.

For this reason, yoga is totally incompatible with our Christian Orthodox
faith and it has no place in the life of Christians, the statement said,
even though it added that the the Church respects religious freedom.

Imam Hamid Slimi: Mosque raises money to repair Catholic
church allegedly damaged by schizophrenic MuslimHamid Slimi and the members of his Mississauga mosque raised $5,000
in one night

ANDREW BUNCOMBE - Tuesday 30 June 2015

When a Muslim leader heard that a member of his own community had vandalised
a nearby church, he realised he had to act. Not just with words but with
deeds. So Hamid Slimi, imam of the Sayeda Khadija Centre in Mississauga,
Canada, paid a visit to the nearby St Catherine of Siena Roman Catholic
Church where he was shocked to see the damage. Pages had been torn from
the Bible, an alter had been damaged and a cross had been thrown to the
floor. Mr Slimi then return to his mosque and organised its members to
raise money to help repair the vandalism, carried out in May. In one day
they managed to raise around $5,000.
It was a very bad scene, Mr Slimi told The Star. The guy who did
it ripped pages out of the Bible. He broke the altar. He threw the cross.
When I saw this, I thought it was pure injustice. It was just wrong.

The newspaper said that police Iqbal Hessan, 22, in connection with
the damage and and charged him with breaking and entering. During the bail
hearing, Mr Hessan said he was upset with the Christian religion. His
father reportedly told the court his son had been diagnosed with schizophrenia,
which he believed had caused his anger and imbalance. Police said that
reviewing the young mans mental health history, police decided they were
not proceeding with a hate crime.

Mr Slimis mosque did not immediately respond to phone calls. However,
Father Camillo Lando, of St Catherine of Siena Roman Catholic Church, told
The Independent that he had informed his congregation this Sunday of the
gift from mosque members. It was very nice, he said. I told people on
Sunday. We have said there should be no revenge.

ISIS seen undermining Islamic faith as more Muslims
convert to ChristianityMonica Cantilero 08 June 2015

Islam will reportedly become the world's largest religion 55 years from
now based on recent projections, but the barbarous practices of the Islamic
State could undermine the growth of the world's Muslim population, experts
said. According to a recent Pew Research Center study, Christianity and
Islam will be near parity by 2050, with Christians expected to comprise
31.4 percent of the planet's population against 29.7 percent who follow
Islam. The study said Islam will grow more than twice as fast as any other
major religion over the next half century because of a higher fertility
rate in Muslim dominated countries. However, Muslims frightened by the
inhumane acts by the ISIS, which the militants claim they are doing in
the name of their god Allah, are now questioning their very own faith,
and presumably considering to leave it, CBS News reported on Friday.

This is backed by testimonies from missionaries working in the Islamic
world who noted that more Muslims have converted to Christianity in the
last 14 years since the devastating Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in
the US. The number of converts in the recent period, they said, is greater
than during the entire 14 centuries of Islamic history. "Many Muslims are
saying, 'If ISIS is Islam, I'm leaving.' Some are becoming atheists," said
Brother Rachid, who hosts a Christian program reaching Muslims called "Daring
Questions" in Arabic language. "There is a huge wave of atheism in the
Arab world right now and many are turning to Jesus Christ. Islam was never
faced with this crisis before." "Islam is going to collapse," added Brother
Rachid, whose father is a Moroccan imam who lived as a secret Christian
convert for 15 years.

Pastor Fouad Rasho of Angered Alliance Church in Sweden, who has baptized
more than a hundred former Muslims, maintained that ISIS causes many Muslims
to come to Jesus. "Every week I meet one or more persons who come to me
and want to know more about Christianity and the Bible because they are
very angry about being a Muslim. They don't want to continue to be Muslim,"
said Imran, who is also an immigrant from Syria.

Many converts keep their shift in religion a secret, fearing for their
lives and for being an outcast. Imram (not his real name), a British college
student from a Pakistani immigrant family, said leaving Islam is tough.
"If someone leaves Islam and becomes an apostate, he is thrown out of his
family; his family will be the first ones to abandon him," he said. "His
friends will reject him and he will be killed or he will be persecuted.
A lot of my friends said, 'This is the last time I'm talking to you because
you disrespected the prophet Mohammed, you disrespected Islam.'"

Transfixed by the face of Jesus: Pilgrims at the Shroud
of Turin

Pope
Francis with the Shroud of Turin in the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist,
Turin on June 21, 2015. Credit: L'Osservatore Romano

Turin, Italy, Jun 24, 2015 / 04:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- At this year's
exposition of the Shroud of Turin, pilgrims reflected on looking upon what
some believe to be Christ's own image  miraculously imprinted on a Jewish
burial cloth 2,000 years ago. I was transfixed looking at the face, said
Peter Taylor, a seminarian for the diocese of Middlesbrough, England in
an interview with CNA. I just couldn't tear my eyes away from the face
of Christ. It was just so mesmerizing that you couldnt look away. Taylor,
who is completing his second year of formation for the priesthood at the
Venerable English College (VEC) in Rome, was one of scores of pilgrims
to have visited the Shroud of Turin during its April 19-June 24 exposition.
Pope Francis also made a pilgrimage to Turin before the event ended. Housed
in Turin's Saint John the Baptist Cathedral, the image on the 14 ft. long,
3-and-a-half ft. wide cloth is stained with the postmortem image of a man
 front and back  who has been brutally tortured and crucified. Taylor
said it was especially moving to see the face on the shroud in light and
Pope Francis' recent Bull of Induction for the Year of Mercy, set to begin
this December: To see Jesus is to say the face of the Father's mercy.
To really look upon Christ was really moving, he said.

The staff and student body of the VEC began this past academic year
with a trip to the Holy Land, during which they visited the Holy Sepulchre
in Jerusalem. Many of these took part in a pilgrimage organized by the
seminary to see the shroud during this current exposition. To actually
have been in the tomb (of Jesus), and then to see the shroud, was a very
moving experience I think for everybody, Taylor said. For pilgrims traveling
to Turin to see the shroud, the experience begins a short way from the
main Cathedral. Visitors are led quietly through a series of covered walkways
which wind through a nearby wooded area. The path is occasionally marked
by images and quotes from the local saints, such as St. John Bosco and
Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati.

Visitors are then led into a darkened room where they are presented
with a short film, without narration, showing the details of the burial
cloth, and what the various markings mean. The film draws particular attention
to the wounds on the shroud, emphasizing the correlation between the injuries
seen on the image and those suffered by Christ as depicted in the Gospel.
At the conclusion of the film, the visitors are led through the Cathedral
itself, which has been darkened to allow the full effect of the backlighting
behind the Shroud. They pass by various side chapels, including one containing
the tomb of Turin local, Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati. Finally, they are
led behind the central altar, and allowed to stand, in silence for about
five minutes, just a few feet from where the Shroud is on display.

Although tickets are required to be able to see the Shroud close up,
it is still visible from the pews which are open to everyone, and it is
easy to make out many of the details owing to the overall darkness in the
Cathedral in relation to the dim lighting behind the cloth. Marco Egawhary,
a third-year seminarian receiving formation at the VEC for the Archdiocese
of Birmingham, also took part in the pilgrimage to Turin. He told CNA he
was surprised by the prayerful atmosphere considering the number of people
who were going. Before the shroud itself is actually very, very prayerful,
and that was what really struck me, he said. It was the quietness of
the atmosphere and just the deep sense of prayer that was going on.

The Shroud of Turin is among the most well-known relics believed to
be connected with Christ's Passion. Venerated for centuries by Christians
as the burial shroud of Jesus, it has been subject to intense scientific
study to ascertain its authenticity, and the origins of the image.
Regardless of what the evidence indicates, however, it is not necessary
to believe that the Shroud is authentic, according to Catholic teaching.
Belief in whether it is genuine or not is left up to the individual.
In light of the question surrounding the Shrouds authenticity, Egawhary
explained his attitude in going to Turin: If this is the shroud that has
wrapped our Lord in the tomb, then what would that mean for me and to be
praying in front of it?

Although he believes the evidence suggesting that the cloth is real
is compelling, he said his faith does not depend on its being authentic.
Our faith is not based on these sort of exterior signs of things like
the shroud or the true relics of the cross. Our faith is based on a personal
encounter with Jesus. Thats what it is to be a Catholic. My experience
in front of the shroud being that powerful sort of confirmed it, that interior
sense. But if a statement were to be released saying its not genuine it
wouldnt change my faith. Echoing the Churchs teaching that it is not
necessary to accept the Turin relic as Jesus' actual burial shroud, Taylor
said the atmosphere of holiness surrounding the Shroud nonetheless left
him believing in its authenticity. There was a real sense of being somewhere
sacred, being somewhere holy, he said. Even so, if the Vatican
said it wasnt authentic, for me it would still have meant something really
moving, he said. Having that time in front of the Shroud was a very poignant
moment in my life and it always will be.

Hundreds of thousands rally in Rome to defend natural
family and protect kids from gender theoryROME, June 22, 2015 (LifeSiteNews)  Hundreds of thousands of people
rallied in Rome on Saturday to protest the imposition of gender ideology
in schools and to condemn an Italian Senate bill that proposes to give
same-sex partners equivalent rights as married couples.

We rally to defend our children from gender theory introduced in the
schools, that damages the innocence and the healthy development of children,
to defend the natural family from the assault to which it is constantly
subjected by our Parliament, to defend the right of parents to educate
their children, and to promote the right of every child to grow up with
a father and a mother, rally organizer and long-time Italian pro-family
activist Toni Brandi told LifeSiteNews.

Participants taking part in what organizers called a family day packed
to overflowing the Piazza San Giovanni in front of the St. John Lateran
Basilica. "We are a million," organizers said from the stage, reported
Italian daily newspaper Corriere della Sera. While Zenit in Italian has
reported a million demonstrators, other news sources such as Breitbart
puts the number at half a million, while mainstream media puts the number
even lower. Event organizer and Catholic leader Kiko Argüello of the
Neocatechumenal Way believes there were even more than a million.

The grassroots-led rally is all the more remarkable in its overwhelming
numbers in that it was announced at the beginning of June and received
no prior media attention. By Sunday, reports of the rally became front
page news in all of Italys major newspapers. The rally is even more remarkable
in that a similar rally held last year only drew about 600 people.

Participants, many of them families with children, held banners that
stated: The family will save the world" and "Let's defend our children.
No to gender ideology, no to ideological colonization of our children
in the schools, no to the [Senate] bill Cirinnà and gay marriage,
rally organizers stated in a press release. The natural family alone is
the necessary and fundamental cell of society. Brandi told LifeSiteNews
that despite Pope Francis condemnation of gender ideology on at least
four separate occasions, only a handful of Catholic bishops lent their
support to the rally.

Organizers say the event was a total success. The Piazza was filled
with light and truth, without anything homophobic or discriminatory. The
families of Italy have come with enormous sacrifices to Rome and have raised
their voice to be heard, the organizers stated in a press release after
the event.

"It was a large group of people and families in defense of the family,
moved by love for our children, said Mario Adinolfi, director of La Croce
and founder of Voglio la Mamma [I need Mama]. Concluded organizers: It
was a family day with a million smiling faces, all crammed, crowded together,
under the sun and in the rain, without losing their smiles. Young and old
parents, grandparents and grandchildren, children of all ages, even toddlers
in prams, all say in unison to those who work in those hallowed halls of
power: Hey, we are here! You can not ignore us.

What happens when an entire country becomes infested
with demons?

By David Ramos
Can a country with deep Christian roots like Mexico find itself at
the mercy of demons? Some in the Church fear so. And as a result,
they called for a nation-wide exorcism of Mexico, carried out quietly last
month in the cathedral of San Luis Potosí. High levels of violence,
as well as drug cartels and abortion in the country, were the motivation
behind the special rite of exorcism, known as Exorcismo Magno.

Cardinal Juan Sandoval Íñiguez, the archbishop emeritus
of Guadalajara, presided at the closed doors ceremony, the first ever in
the history of Mexico. Also participating were Archbishop Jesús
Carlos Cabrero of San Luis Potosí, Spanish demonologist and exorcist
Father José Antonio Fortea, and a smaller group of priests and lay
people. The event was not made known to the general public beforehand.
According to Archbishop Cabrero, the reserved character of the May 20 ceremony
was intended to avoid any misguided interpretations of the ritual.

But how can an entire country become infested by demons to the point
that its necessary to resort to an Exorcismo Magno? To the extent sin
increases more and more in a country, to that extent it becomes easier
for the demons to tempt (people), Fr. Fortea told CNA. The Spanish exorcist
warned that to the extent there is more witchcraft and Satanism going
on in a country, to that extent there will be more extraordinary manifestations
of those powers of darkness.

Fr. Fortea said that the exorcism performed in San Luís Potosí
is the first ever carried out in Mexico in which the exorcists came from
different parts of the country and gathered together to exorcise the powers
of darkness, not from a person, but from the whole country. This rite
of exorcism, beautiful and liturgical, had never before taken place in
any part of the world. Although it had taken place in a private manner
as when Saint Francis (exorcised) the Italian city of Arezzo, he stated.
The Spanish exorcist explained, however, that the celebration of this ritual
will not automatically change the difficult situation Mexico is going through
in a single day. It would be a big mistake to think that by performing
a full scale exorcism of the country everything would automatically change
right away.

Nevertheless, he emphasized that if with the power weve received from
Christ we expel the demons from a country, this will certainly have positive
repercussions, because well make a great number of the tempters flee,
even if this exorcism is partial. We dont drive out all the evil spirits
from a country with just one ceremony. But even though all will not be
expelled, those that were removed are not there anymore. Fr. Fortea emphasized
that when the exorcists of a country drive out its demons, it has to be
done in faith. Youre not going to see anything, feel anything, theres
not going to be any extraordinary phenomenon. We have to have faith that
God conferred on the apostles a power, and that we can use this power.
In any case, if this ritual were to be carried out in more countries once
year, before or after, this would put an end to any extraordinary manifestations
which would show us the rage of the devil. Because, without a doubt, the
demons hate to be driven out of a place or to be bound with the power of
Christ.

The Spanish exorcist said that it would be very desirable that when
theres an annual meeting of exorcists in a country, a ritual such as this
exorcismo magno that took place in Mexico be performed. He also emphasized
that a bishop can authorize its occurrence once a year with his priests
in the cathedral. The bishop is the shepherd and he can use the power
he has received to drive away the invisible wolves from the sheep, since
Satan is like a roaring lion prowling around looking for someone to devour,
and the shepherds can drive away the predator from the victim, he concluded.

Attacks on minorities on rise under Modi regime, report
saysNew Delhi:
The past year has seen an increase in the number of attacks in India
on Christians and Muslims under the ruling pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP), according to a report compiled by human rights activists.

The report, titled 365 Days: Democracy and Secularism Under the Modi
Regime, was released on Thursday in Delhi to highlight the number of alleged
persecution cases and hate speeches against the two religious minorities
by the Hindu majority. It was compiled by several activists that included
Shabnam Hashmi, the founder of ANHAD (Act Now for Harmony and Democracy);
John Dayal, spokesman of the United Christian Forum for Human Rights (UCFHR);
and Professor Apoorvanand, a literary and cultural critic who teaches Hindi
at Delhi University.

According to the report, there were more than 200 cases of persecution
against Christians, more than 170 against Muslims and more than 230 reported
hate speeches leveled against the two communities in the last year around
the country. Comparative figures from previous years were not provided
in the report. Besides Delhi, the report was also released in 15 other
cities across the country The Narendra Modi-led BJP, which came to power
in May last year following a landslide election win, has been accused by
rights activists of trying to turn the country into a Hindu nation with
the backing of the hardline Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS).

This report is a public document. As activists we have presented before
the nation what is happening. If things continue in the direction they
are going, then there would be a big attack on our democracy. It is a dangerous
signal, said Hashmi. The report's allegations of ongoing violence are
at odds with the Indian government, which has claimed that Prime Minister
Modi's election has largely ended violence against the country's minority
communities. Last month India's minister for minority affairs, Najma Heptulla,
told journalists during a visit to Srinagar that no attacks on religious
or ethnic minorities had taken place under Modi's first year as prime minister,
according to a report in The Hindu newspaper. "No one has attacked the
minorities. No riots took place anywhere. Only verbal attacks were taking
place, but that has stopped now," the minister was reported as saying.

In the report released Thursday, activists expressed concern over the
way incidents of communal violence were taking place in a very planned
manner. You may not see blood spilled on the streets; still, the minority
community gets affected at large, said Harsh Mander, an activist and author
who also helped compile the report. The activists pointed to a recent case
of communal violence in the village of Atali, in the northern Indian state
of Haryana, where Muslims were attacked and their houses allegedly burned
by Hindu militants. The Muslim community had to flee the village and take
shelter at a police station.

The incident is an example of how segregation of minority communities
has started happening in the country. The victims were brought in to the
village after promises of protection for them, and now they are not allowed
to meet any community leaders, Professor Apoorvanand said. A different
kind of violence, more psychological, is happening. There is a re-ordering
of social relations in the country. There is an attempt to tame minority
communities, he added. In a veiled attack on the pro-Hindu RSS, Vidya
Bhushan Rawat, an activist who also contributed to the report, told ucanews.com
that the problem is not with the government, but "with the extra-constitutional
forces which think that it is their country and they can get away with
anything they do.

He said that these forces have created grass roots activists who are
totally communalized and attack minorities. Rawat said it is the duty of
the government to prevent the situation from getting worse. Dismissing
government claims that attacks on minorities have decreased, the UCFHR's
Dayal accused the government of keeping incidents of communal violence
under wraps. They are not reported. In those states, which are ruled by
the BJP, the police, government and the RSS is one seamless entity. The
cases that happen do not come out in the open, Dayal said. Activists accuse
Hindu militants of orchestrated persecution of minority religious groups.

Pope
in Turin tells young people to be chaste in love, go against the flow and
not retire at 20

In
his last meeting on the first day of his visit to Turin, Francis met young
people in Vittorio Square. In a Question and Answer exchange, he talked
about love, friendship and loss of trust towards life. "I understand you.
How many hypocrites speak of peace and sell weapons. How can one trust?
By following Christ, whose act of extreme love, i.e. the Cross, saved humanity."
The pontiff also looked at the horrors of the 20th century as evidence
of the loss of trust towards world powers. He urged young people not to
retire at 20, but live, dont just exist.

Turin (AsiaNews)
 Love, friendship and attitude towards life must be lived in light of
the teachings of Jesus. This is the only way to understand them in their
fullness, said Pope Francis in his last public address to a large gathering
of young people in the citys Vittorio Square on the first day of his pastoral
visit to Turin.

On this occasion,
the Holy Father blessed the World Youth Day Cross, as it made a stop on
its way to Krakow, setting for the upcoming world gathering. He also answered
three questions from young people. One of the latter was a 19-year-old
disabled education student who is scheduled to take her exams. She asked
the pope to explain "the greatest love, that of Christ. Another, 30-year-old
Sara, has a full life" but cannot find work. A young man who helps out
in seven oratories asked the pontiff about the idea of friendship with
Christ. The popes long answer follows (Transcribed and translated by AsiaNews).

Thanks Clara,
Sara and Luigi. Thank you for the questions about the three words we heard
from the Gospel of John: love, life and friends. In Johns text, these
three words meet, and one explains the other. It is not possible to talk
about life in the Gospels without talking about love and life. It is also
not possible to talk about love without this transformation, from servants
into friends.

These three
words are very important to life. All three have a common root, the desire
to live. Let me quote the words of Blessed Piergiorgio Frassati who said,
live, dont just exist. You know how bad it is to see young people idle
away, vegetating - excuse me for that expression. Some young people are
involved in things but . . . life is life. Their life goes as life does,
stuck, unable to move. You dont know how sad it is for me to see young
people retire from life at the age of 20. They have aged precociously.
What then? Thus, when Chiara asked about love, what makes a young person
not retire early . . . is the desire to love, to give what is most beautiful
to man and God. Johns definition of God is God is love.

When a young
person lives, he loves, grows and does not retire. He grows, grows, grows
and gives. What is love? Is it one of the boring soap operas we see [on
TV]? For some, that is love. Speaking about love is so beautiful. One could
say many beautiful things. However, love moves on two axles. If someone,
a young person, does not have these two axles, these two aspects, it is
not love.

First of all,
love is more in deeds than in words. Love is real. When I spoke to the
Salesian family two hours ago, I spoke about the concreteness of their
vocation. I told them that they feel young, and here they stand in the
front row [Applause and laughter]. Love is real, more in deeds than in
words. Saying "I love you" is not love. What will one do for love? One
gives love. Remember that God began to speak about love when He became
involved with His people. When he chose his people, he made a covenant
with his people, and saved his people. God has a lot of patience. He forgave
so many times; indeed, that is what he did! He did things, works of love.

The second
aspect, the second axle on which love turns, is the love that one always
communicates. It is, in other words, the love that listens and answers.
Love is done in dialogue, in communion, it communicates. Love is neither
deaf nor dumb, it communicates. These two aspects are very useful to understand
what love is. It is not a romantic feeling, fleeting, or a story. No. It
is something real, in what one does, and communicates. It is in dialogue,
always. So, Chiara, I shall answer that question. However, we often feel
let down, by love. What is Jesus love? How can we experience it?

Now, I know
that you are good kids and I will speak truthfully. I do not want to moralise,
but I do want to say something I dont like, something unpopular. Even
the pope sometimes has to take risks on things to tell the truth. Love
is in deeds, in how one communicates; love is very respectful of people.
It does not use people, i.e. love is chaste. And you, young people, in
this hedonistic world [of ours], in this world where only advertising,
pleasure . . . the good life . . . [prevail], I tell you: be chaste! Be
chaste!

In life, all
of us have been through times when this virtue was hard [to respect]. Yet,
it is the proof of true love, one that knows how to give life, one that
does not try to use others for ones own pleasure. This love makes holy
the life of the other person. "I respect you; [therefore,] I will not use
you." It is not easy. We all know how hard it is to get over facile and
hedonistic notions of love.

Forgive me,
but let me ask you to make an effort to live love chastely. From this,
one consequence follows. If love is respectful, if it is in deeds and communication,
then this love is about making sacrifices for others. Look at parental
love, that of countless mothers and fathers who each morning arrive at
work tired because they could not sleep in order to take care of their
sick child. This is love. This is respect. This is not the good life; this
is service, another key concept. Love is service; it is service to others.
When after the washing of the feet, Jesus explained his act to the Apostles,
he taught them that we are made to serve one another. If I say that I love
and I do not serve or help others, or move them forward, or make no sacrifices,
then that is not love. You carried the Cross; that is the sign of God.
Those deeds, for many centuries of history, end there: His Son on the Cross.
The greatest service is to give ones life, sacrificing oneself, to help
others.

It is not easy
to talk about love, to live love, but with what I said, Chiara, I believe
I have gone some way in answering the question that you had for me. I dont
know, but I hope I have succeeded. Thank you, Sara, our theatre aficionado.
We often feel distrust in life. Indeed, we do! Because there are situations
that make us think, "Well, is this life worth it? Is it right to live this
way? What can I expect from this life?"

Let us now
turn to the wars. I sometimes said that we are in the middle of World War
Three, but piecemeal. There is war in Europe. There is war in Africa. There
is war in the Orient. There is war in other countries. Can I trust such
a world? Can I trust world leaders? When I vote for a candidate, can I
trust that he or she will not lead my country to war?

If you trust
only people, you have lost. [Laughter and applause] One thought comes to
mind: people, CEOs, business people who call themselves Christian and [yet]
manufacture weapons. [Applause] This leads to a loss in trust. They call
themselves Christian! As a matter of fact, Father, I dont make weapons.
I just have investments in companies that manufacture weapons. Right! Why?
Because of higher earnings. Being two-faced is so conventional. Doing
one thing and saying another. [Applause]. What hypocrisy! Let us see what
happened the last century.

There was a
great tragedy in Armenia in 1914 and 1915. [Applause] Many, millions died.
Where were the great powers of that time? They turned the other way, and
were interested in their war, and in those deaths. They [the Armenians]
were third class human beings [Applause]. Later, in the 1930s and 1940s
[came] the tragedy of the Holocaust. The great powers had photographs of
the railway routes that brought the trains to the concentration camps,
to Auschwitz, to kill Jews, Christians, Roma, homosexuals . . . Tell me
then, why did they not bomb them? [Out of] interests, eh? [Applause]. A
little later, in almost the same period, there were concentration camps
in Russia. Stalin! How many Christians suffered and were killed? The great
powers divided up Europe, like a pie. It took many years before we got
some freedom.

It is hypocritical
to talk about peace and make weapons, or sell them to the two warring sides.
[Applause] I understand when you talk about the loss of trust in life.
Even today, I like to say that we are living in a culture of exclusion,
because what is not economically useful is excluded; children because either
they are not born or are killed before they are born; seniors because they
are no longer useful and are left to die, a sort of hidden euthanasia;
and now young people when considering that 40 per cent is jobless. This
is true exclusion! [Applause]

But why? Because,
contrary to Gods will, men and women are not at the centre of the worlds
economic system. The mighty buck is. Everything is done for money. [Applause]
In Spanish there is a saying, "The little monkey will dance for money."
[Applause]. In this culture of exclusion, can we trust life or does the
loss of trust grow? Young people who cannot study, who do not work, who
feel ashamed and unworthy because they have no job and earn no living .
. . How often do they become addicts or commit suicide? We dont have clear
statistics about suicide among young people. How many times do they go
to fight with the terrorists, at least to do something for an ideal? I
understand this challenge.

For this reason,
Jesus used to say not to trust riches and worldly powers. How can I trust
life, how can I live a life that does not destroy, or turn into a life
of destruction, a life that excludes people? How can I live? Live a life
that does not disappoint me?

Let me answer
Luigi. He spoke about sharing; i.e. about connecting, building. We must
go forward with our construction plans. Such a life cannot disappoint.
If one takes part in a construction project, one of help  helping street
kids, migrants, the many who need food but also involvement  the loss
of trust goes away. What should I do for this? Do not retire too soon!
[You must] do, do [things]. [Applause].

Let me tell
you something else: go against the flow. For you young people, stuck in
the existing economic, cultural, hedonistic and consumeristic situation,
with values like soap bubbles, such values lead nowhere. You must do constructive
things, small ones, that unite us and our ideals. This is the best antidote
to the loss of trust, to a culture that offers only pleasure  living high
on the hog, with money and no worry in the world. [You must] go against
the flow; be creative.Last summer,
in August, when Rome was as good as dead, I met a group of young men and
women, who travelled across Italy camping here and there. They came to
see me after we spoke on the phone. They were a sad sight, dirty and tired,
but how happy they were. Because they went against the flow [Applause].
Often, advertisers try to convince us that this is good, that that is good.
They try to make us believe that they are like diamonds when in fact they
sell glass and more. We must go against this; we must not be naïve.
[We must] not buy the garbage they sell as if it were diamonds.

Finally, let
me reiterate what Pier Giorgio Frassati said. If you want to make it, if
you want to do something good in life, live, dont just exist. You are
smart, and you will certainly say, "Father, you speak like this because
you are in the Vatican [Laughter]. You have many monsignors who work for
you. Things are quiet for you, and you dont know what everyday life is."
Indeed, some people might think this. The secret is to understand where
one lives. In this land, in the late nineteenth century, things were very
bad for young people. [There were] free masons, fiercely anti-clerical,
and the Church could do nothing about it. There were devil-worshippers.
It was one of the worst period in Italian history. [However,] if you want
to write a good home report, go and find those male and female saints who
were born at this time. They knew it and went against the flow of that
culture.

Live reality!
If it is glass and not diamond, try to go against the flow and do the right
thing. Thank you, thank you, thank you very much [Applause]. Always love,
life, friends. But one can only experience these words by going out, always
going out to bring something. If one stands still, one will accomplish
nothing in life, except ruin it

Sister
Nirmala, former head of Missionaries of Charity, dies in IndiaKolkata, India, Jun 23, 2015 / 11:30 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Catholics
around the world are mourning the death of Sister Nirmala Joshi, who passed
away Tuesday. Sr. Nirmala had succeeded Blessed Teresa of Calcutta as superior
general of the Missionaries of Charity, serving in that capacity from 1997
to 2009.

Sr. Nirmala, who was 81, had suffered ill health for some years,
and was hospitalized and then brought home a few days ago, dying at a Missionaries
of Charity home in Kolkata in the early hours of June 23. All people in
India and especially the Archdiocese of Calcutta is saddened with this
great loss of Sr. Nirmala Joshi, who was very close and dear to us, Fr.
Dominic Gomes, vicar general of the Archdiocese of Calcutta, told CNA.
She was simple, humble and emanated a strong spirituality of faith, Fr.
Gomes added. Her exemplary life was an inspiration to the younger generation
in the congregation and to people around the world.

The body of Sr. Nirmala is lying in state at St John's Church in Kolkata's
Sealdah district, and will be taken to the Missionaries of Charity's Mother
House in Kolkata tomorrow. The funeral Mass will be said at 4 pm local
time on Wednesday, and then interred at St. Johns cemetery. Archbishop
Thomas DSouza of Calcutta, who had visited Sr. Nirmala a fortnight ago
when she had regained consciousness, has expressed his deep sadness and
grief at her death, saying, 'she was a great soul. He praised her work,
noting that she never talked about herself; she was more about how to
support peace, to be helpful to the poor she had a deep union with Jesus
and she was a gentle apostle of peace until the end.

Sr. Nirmala was in born in 1934 in Ranchi, capital of what is now India's
Jharkhand state, to a Hindu brahmin family from Nepal who were serving
the British during colonial rule. Her given name was Kusum, meaning flower,
and she was the eldest sibling among eight girls and two boys. Her early
education was at Christian schools. She was inspired by Mother Teresa's
humanitarian work, and was baptized. She later entered the Missionaries
of Charity and took the name Nirmala, meaning purity in Sanskrit. She
completed a master's degree in political science, and studied law as well.
In the 1970s, she became head of the congregation's contemplative wing.
Sr. Nirmala was elected as superior general of the congregation just a
few months before Mother Teresa's death in 1997, and pursued the founder's
cause for beatification.

During the Missionaries of Charity's general chapter in 2009 she declined
to remain head of the congregation, given her health issues. She was succeeded
by Sr. Mary Prema Pierick, who remains superior general. The Indian government
has recognized her work for the poor and for peace, granting her the Padma
Vibhushan, the nation's second highest civilian award, in 2009. Tributes
and messages have started to flood social media praising her service to
the poor. Indian prime minister Narendra Modi was quick to tweet,
"Sister Nirmala's life was devoted to service, caring for the poor &
underprivileged. Saddened by her demise. May her soul rest in peace. The
opposition Congress leader Rahul Gandhi tweeted: "Extremely saddened at
the passing away of Sister Nirmala. She carried forward Mother Teresa's
work with quiet dedication & dignity. She will be missed by the countless
whose lives she touched." The West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee
stated, Saddened at the passing away of Sister Nirmala, who headed the
Missionaries of Charity after Mother Teresa. Kolkata and the world will
miss her.

Second catholic church in Abu Dhabi inaugurated12 June 2015

The new St. Paul church of Roman Catholic faith is a 4,560 square
metres complex built on a land given by Abu Dhabi Municipality in Musaffah,
the industrial area of Abu Dhabi.

Abu Dhabi - A second catholic church in Abu Dhabi was inaugurated on
Thursday evening in the presence of Shaikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan,
the UAE Minister for Culture, Youth and Community Development, Cardinal
Pietro Parolin, the Vaticans secretary of state and Bishop Paul Hinder,
the apostolic vicar of Southern Arabia. The new St. Paul church of Roman
Catholic faith is a 4,560 square metres complex built on a land given by
Abu Dhabi Municipality in Musaffah, the industrial area of Abu Dhabi.

In the UAE there are almost 900,000 Catholics and up to 20,000 of them
are attending weekly church services in Abu Dhabi, which, until now, was
only possible in the capital's only Catholic church, the St. Josephs Cathedral,
located in the city centre. With most labour camps now being in Musaffah
and with more people living in the adjacent areas of Mohammed bin Zayed
and Khalifa cities, the new St. Paul church is believed to be a blessing
for Catholics on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi.

'Our leadership knows its true wealth and accepts the obligation to
respect and understand the many religious beliefs of the people living
in this country. I believe that each of you can provide evidence that the
leaders of the UAE are fulfilling that obligation,' said Shaikh Nahyan,
during the inauguration ceremony. St Paul church falls under the apostolic
vicariate of Southern Arabia, a territorial jurisdiction of the Catholic
Church in the UAE, Oman and Yemen, with the seat of the bishop in Abu Dhabi.
'The new church is again a shining example of the generosity of the rulers
of the UAE. We thank the rulers for providing an attractive environment,
where Christians feel accepted and are able to live their own identity
and to practice their religious beliefs,' added Bishop Hinder.

An Armenian catholic church is also being built in Musaffah industrial
area, although completion dates are not yet released.

Dozens of books have been written in recent years by liberal theologians
in an attempt to demonstrate that homosexuality, homosexual relationships,
and homosexual marriage are fully consistent with Biblical Christianity.
I have grown weary of reading that King David was a homosexual because
he loved Jonathan, or that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed because of
a lack of hospitality, or  my personal favorite that the Bible
never actually addresses the issue of homosexual behavior.

I would suggest that the fact that some of such foolishness comes from
persons who once professed to be Christians is yet further evidence of
the fact that the nation indeed the world is well along in the Biblically-foretold
age of apostasy. During such a period, we are warned about the prevalence
of false teachers. How can we tell whether a teacher is false?
Who can we rely on? But for the fact that we have the Word of God,
we would be adrift on such matters.

One ubiquitous question asked among Christians for a decade has been:
What Would Jesus Do? A recent article by Dave Daubenmire thoughtfully
addressed the topic: Would
Jesus Officiate at a Same Sex Marriage? His article discusses
how we can know, for certain, the answer to this question by studying exactly
what His Father has revealed to us through the Holy Scriptures as to what
He intended marriage to be. If you do not believe that the Bible
is the Word of God, this article may mean nothing to you. But even
if you don't believe the Bible, I challenge you to read through it, so
that you at least you can say you have heard the other side.

Before we address homosexual marriage it is imperative that we
seek to know how the Definer of marriage identifies marriage. We
begin in Genesis 2:18-25, which states:

"Then the LORD God said, 'It is not good for the man to
be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.' Out of the ground
the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky,
and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever
the man called a living creature, that was its name. The man gave names
to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the
field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. So the
LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He
took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The LORD God
fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought
her to the man. The man said, 'This is now bone of my bones, And flesh
of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.'
For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined
to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife
were both naked and were not ashamed."

God is the one who said that it was not good for man to be alone.
So when He created a helper for man He created a woman not another man.
God established monogamy as the pattern for marriage. From Genesis
1:1, which reads,"In the beginning God "...
," we know
that the universe is not a chance happening. God is intimately involved
with our existence. God putting His stamp on creation in a unique
way creates man. Genesis 1:26-28 states:

"Then God said, let Us make man in Our image, according
to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the
birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every
creeping thing that creeps on the earth. And God created man in His own
image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
And God blessed them, and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply,
and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and
over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the
earth.'"

Man is created to have dominion over the earth. Before family comes
purpose. The purpose was that mankind would have dominion. Remember,
the fall of man has not occurred, yet. Man is still in a perfect
environment. Genesis 1:31 reads, "And God saw all that
He had made, and behold, it was very good." When God created man,
He created the capstone of His creation whose job it is to run His creation.

In Genesis 2:18 the woman comes on to the scene: "Then
the Lord God said, it is not good for man to be alone, I will make him
a helper suitable for him." Woman was conceived in the mind
of God, not Adam's. Please note that this is different than the creation
of male and female animals. Male and female animals were all created
at the same time. The first creation of man and woman occurred at
different times. I believe the reason why this happened is because
male and female human beings were given the responsibility of dominion.
Animals were not. Whenever you delegate dominion you necessarily
have hierarchy.

Genesis 2:21 states,"So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to
fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed
up the flesh at that place." Eve is created out of Adam.
So Adam is only half the man he used to be because he loses one side.
In order for him to become a whole man he has to get his rib back.
But his rib is now located in somebody else. He can't take the rib
out of somebody else and put it back. So in order to get his rib
back he has to take hold of somebody else's life, and make this somebody
part of his life to get the rib back that he lost. But getting his
rib back means he gets another half he didn't count on, because he not
only gets his rib, he gets her rib, too.

That means, gentlemen, that what marriage does is bring back what you
lost, with a bonus. That is why she is different from you.
And, that means, ladies, if you are going to understand your rib, you have
got to understand Adam because half of your ribs belong to him. So
in order for you to understand who you are, in the marriage relationship,
you need to understand who he is, because half of what makes you who you
are, is part of what makes him who he is. So in order for both of
you to become all that both of you were meant to be, both of you have to
merge into each other. If you don't take from your mate their strengths
you do not become all that you were created to be.

God performs the marriage ceremony and Adam says, in Genesis 2:23,
"This is now "..." (note he doesn't say "she" is now). He says, "This
is now "... ,"
meaning this new relationship. Ee is talking about
marriage. "This is now bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, she
shall be called woman because she was taken from man," said Adam.
Adam names her. He names her after himself. His name in Hebrew
is Eish. The Hebrew word for woman is Eisha. In the first marriage,
she takes his name. All Eve knows when she is created is that she
is there. She doesn't know who she fully is until she receives his
name. That is why in marriage there is a transfer of names from the
woman's last name to the man's last name, because she is now merged into
another purpose.

The Six Purposes for Which God Created Marriage and Family

There are at least six purposes for which God create marriage and family.
The first reason for marriage is procreation: having babies. The
Bible makes grand statements about having babies, the more the merrier.
Why the big deal? Remember God told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and
multiply so that you will have dominion over the earth. The reason was
not just to have people that looked like them. It had to do with the theology
of dominion. Dominion meant to reproduce yourself and spread out
all over the earth, so that all over this planet there would be somebody
ruling under God's authority. Mankind cannot perpetuate itself based
on homosexual marriage.

Secondly, marriage is self-realization. "Adam I will make a helpmate
for you." As long as you are single, God is your completeness.
When it is time to marry, God is in the process of bringing someone along
to fix up the rest of us to make us complete. The reason Adam was
given a wife was to complete him. God doesn't give you somebody just
like you. For if both of you are the same, then one of you would
be unnecessary. He gives someone who is different from you so that
you can make up the differences, so that you can fulfill the complete purpose
of God that He has ordained.

Thirdly, marriage is a divine Illustration. You are a type of
Christ in the church. The Bible says that you are the bride and Christ
is the bridegroom. You are to illustrate a greater reality of God
to His people. So a bad marriage means a bad illustration. Ephesians
5:32 tells us that this is an illustration of the relationship of Christ.
Homosexual marriage is not a reflection of divine illustration. In
fact, one could make an argument that it borderlines on blasphemy.

Fourthly, marriage brings about companionship. God created marriage
for companionship. Genesis 2:18 states,"Then the Lord God
said, "It is not good for the man to be alone.'" There is a
great blessing in sharing life with the one you love your companion.
God created Adam and Eve when He declared that it was not good for man
to be alone.

Fifthly, marriage brings enjoyment. God created sex for enjoyment,
in the context of marriage. I Corinthians 7:5 says,"Stop
depriving one another, except by agreement for a time, so that you may
devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again so that Satan will
not tempt you because of your lack of self-control." Outside of the
context of heterosexual marriage there might be "pleasure for a season,"
(Hebrews 11:25) but there can be no true, lasting enjoyment.

Sixthly, marriage is for protection. God desires a godly seed.
Malachi
2:15 reads,"But not one has done so who has a remnant of
the Spirit. And what did that one do while he was seeking
a godly offspring? Take heed then to your spirit, and let no one deal treacherously
against the wife of your youth." God knows that marriage provides
protection for the family.

But we now live in a lost and fallen world. And America is not
exempt from this broken world. In fact, there are many reasons to
believe that America, far from being an example for the nations, is now
leading the nations in the wrong direction. A recent article
on systemic corruption in America is an eye-opening compendium of the
near complete fallenness of government, corporations and the people.

The Book of Romans gives us a description of the end-times society when
Jesus will return and God will pour out His wrath, beginning with Chapter
1: "For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or
give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations and their foolish
hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise they became fools."
I have seen men with degrees, piled on top of degrees that get up and say
how you and I evolved from monkeys. Maybe they did, but I sure didn't!
Some of the greatest intellectual minds of the universe talk about how
we evolved from a single cell protoplasmic blob! That is beyond the
comprehension of the mind. If you saw a Boeing 747 flying across
the sky, wouldn't you assume that because it could fly, it can carry people,
its seats are placed in rows, and that it can do all the things it can
do; wouldn't you assume that somebody thought it up, and somebody put it
together? Certainly you would not conclude that it was the accidental
product of a tornado blowing through a junkyard. Yet, the same mind
can look in the sky and see a bird fly by and say, "product of chance."

"And they exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image
in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and
crawling creatures," reads Romans. They worshiped the creature
rather than the Creator. We have the worship of the creature going
on around us on a global scale. Then look what happened here is
the tragic payoff. Romans continues:

"Therefore God gave them over in the lust of their hearts
to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them. For they
exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature
rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever, Amen."

Now look what God did, because they worshiped the creature rather than
the Creator, God steps back. It is as if God has parameters, or limits,
as to how far evil can go. He says that evil can only go so far.
But, God says if you are going to knock against those limits, and if you
knock against them long enough I am going to step back. I will let
you foul your own nest and if you want to live like a pagan, you can.
When He steps back what happened? There was an outbreak of immorality.
Does that sound familiar?

"For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their
women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in
the same way the men abandoned that natural function of the woman and burned
in their desire towards one another, men committing indecent acts and receiving
in their own person the due penalty of their error,"
continues Romans.God
says if you are going to live like that I am going to step back.
What happens? An outbreak of sexual immorality begins. It culminates
in an outbreak of homosexuality. We are there! We have arrived!

"And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer,
God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not
proper," says Romans. When God steps back there is an outbreak
of immorality. When we continue to push up against those limits God
will step back again, and there is an outbreak of homosexuality.
When we continue to push those limits, God steps back again and turns us
over to a depraved mind, "to do those things which are not proper."
It is a time when lawlessness begins to rule and mankind does not have
any standards by which to live by. Paul finishes the chapter by listing
signs of depravity:

"being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed,
evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips,
slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil,
disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving,
unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who
practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but
also give hearty approval to those who practice them."

With all the attention given to homosexuality in the media, it is no wonder
that Galluprecently
found that the American public estimates that 23 percent of Americans are
gay or lesbian, while the actual number Gallup
finds to be 3.8 percent. And the Williams
Institute finds a total of 390,000 married same-sex couples.
However, regardless of the number of homosexuals in America, the definition
of marriage is not decided by plebiscite. God has defined marriage
as between one man and one woman. If a man and a man or a woman and
a woman desire to be together, that is not marriage. Marriage has
been defined from the beginning, by the One who created us male and female.

Most people know the story of Jonah: he was a prophet whom God told
to go to Nineveh and preach a message of repentance. Nineveh was
the capitol of Assyria which was located 550 miles Northeast of Israel.
But Jonah decides he would go to Tarshish, which was 2,500 miles to the
Northwest. Jonah is a renegade preacher who does not want to do what
God called him to do. In his rebellion, he is tossed overboard of
a ship and is swallowed by a big fish. He was there three days and
three nights and was regurgitated on to dry land.

After Jonah goes on the first submarine ride in history, he agrees to
do what God asked him to do. Jonah goes to Nineveh and preaches to
the city, and in one day the entire city repents. Jonah 3:5-9 reads:

"Then the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called
a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them.
When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, laid
aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth and sat
on the ashes. He issued a proclamation and it said, "In Nineveh by the
decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let man, beast, herd, or flocks
taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water. 8' But both
man and beast must be covered with sackcloth; and let men call on God earnestly
that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in
his hands. "Who knows, God may turn and relent and withdraw His burning
anger so that we will not perish.'"

Notice this about the people of Nineveh. Conversion changed the political
environment of Nineveh. It didn't happen because they made better
laws, hired more policemen, or provided more arms for the people to reduce
the violence. The violence was removed because the people met a living
God. The thing that changes people and brings about peace to an environment
is when men repent before a living God. Nineveh still had the same
King, the same Congress, the same Supreme Court, and the same city Council.
The difference now was there was a heart transformation, and that translated
into actions and behavior. That is the only thing that will help
America change. When the people of America, leaders of America, and
Supreme Court Justices of America encounter the Living God who has the
power to forgive, and to transform our hearts, then we will see a new America.
It doesn't matter who is in public office; it matters if their hearts are
committed to the Living God.

New survey shows huge growth south of Sahara but
decline in Europe

The highest growth rates for Catholicism are in Africa and Asia, according
to a new study released by the Centre for Applied Research in the Apostolate.
The newly-issued report, called Global Catholicism: Trends & Forecasts,
states that the Catholic population has grown by 57 percent since 1980.
However, this growth differs by region, with Europes Catholic population
growing by just 6 percent while the number of Catholics in Africa grew
by 238 percent. Differences between these two regions are largely attributable
to differences in fertility rates over time.
Over the last 50 years, the proportion of the global population who
are Catholic has remained remarkably steady at about 17.5 percent. Most
demographers anticipate a global population exceeding 10 billion by 2100,
up from 7.3 billion now. The engine of population growth is no longer
increasing numbers of children  it is extending life expectancies, said
the report by CARA, which is based at Georgetown University.
If current trends continue, we can expect the global Catholic population
to increase by about 372 million from 2015 to 2050. This would represent
29 percent growth during this period and result in the 2050 Catholic population
numbering 1.64 billion.

CARA looked at five specific regions: Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa
and Oceania. Arguably, the three most important indicators of vitality
for the Catholic Church are the number of Catholics, the number of parishes
and the number of priests, the study said.

Since 1980, the church has had a net gain of nearly 15,300 parishes
representing 7 percent growth. However, with the population growing by
57 percent during this period, there has been a lag in constructing the
brick and mortar of the church. In 1980 there were 3,759 Catholics per
parish in the world. This figure now stands at 5,491 Catholics per parish.
The study added: In Asia and Africa, where the fastest growth in the
Catholic population has occurred, the number of parishes had doubled since
1980. In the Americas, the number of parishes has increased by 25 percent
and in Oceania they have ticked up by 5 percent. In Europe, the number
of parishes has declined by 12 percent.
The Church had about 20,000 fewer priests in 2012 than it did in 1980,
a drop of 17 percent. While the number of priests in Africa and Asia doubled,
the Americas netted an increase of less than 2 percent, and Europes priest
population fell by 78,090, or 32 percent.

In 2012, Europe was home to less than one in four Catholics, or 23
percent, the study said. Yet this region still has 55 percent of all Catholic
parishes and 42 percent of all Catholic priests.
The report also stated that the average percentage of an American countrys
Catholics saying they attended Mass dropped from 52 per cent in the 1980s
to just 29 per cent today.

The Catholic population in Africa has grown by 238 percent since 1980
and is approaching 200 million, CARA said, outstripping the growth in the
number of priests, up 131 percent, and of parishes, up 112 percent. If
current trends in affiliation and differential fertility among religious
groups continue, in 2040, 24 percent of Africans will be Catholic. This
would result in a Catholic population of 460,350,000 in Africa, the study
said.
Asias numbers are less solid, it said, because of varying accounts
of the number of Catholics in China, which has been put at anywhere from
9 million to 143 million. Still, with a doubling in Asias Catholic population
from 62 million to 134 million, the percentage of Asias population that
is Catholic is growing slowly from 2.4 percent in 1980 to 3.2 percent in
2012, the study said.

Giant 14-story 'Bulletproof' Cross being built in Karachi

Pakistans,
May 15, 2015: In hopes of encouraging fellow Christians to stay in Pakistan
in light of religious tensions, a Christian businessman in the country's
largest city is building a giant 14-story cross outside the entrance to
the largest Christian cemetery in Karachi.

Parvez Henry Gill, a devout christian who lives in Karachi, recently
told The Washington Post that God came to him in a dream one night four
years ago and challenged him with the divine task of finding a way to relieve
Pakistani Christians from the constant fear of persecution and abuse frequently
perpetrated by Pakistan's radical Muslim community. "I want you to do something
different," Gill remembers God telling him. Gill admitted that he wasn't
quite sure what the best way to answer God's call was. After many sleepless
nights, he awoke one morning with the realization that he needed to build
a giant cross. "I said, 'I am going to build a big cross, higher than any
in the world, in a Muslim country,'" Gill asserted. "It will be a symbol
of God, and everybody who sees this will be worry free."

Four years later, that giant cross is nearly complete, standing at the
entrance to the Gora Qabaristan Cemetery in Karachi. With the cross measuring
in at 140-feet tall, the cross bar is 42 feet in length. Parts of Gora
Qabaristan Cemetery, which dates back to the British colonial era, have
been disrespectfully settled upon, and many of the headstones have suffered
defacement by the Muslim community, which makes up about 96 percent of
the Pakistani population. Although many Pakistani Christians, who make
up a little over 1 percent of the nation's population, have been killed,
beaten, burned, wrongfully jailed and treated like second-class citizens,
Gill hopes that Christians around Karachi will see the cross as a positive
sign that Christianity can exist there. "I want Christian people to see
it and decide to stay here," Gill explained.

Considering the Muslim community in Karachi will have objections to
the huge, noticeable symbol of Christianity and will likely attempt to
tear it down, Gill said destroying the cross will not be easy because it's
"bulletproof" and sits on a 20-foot underground base. "Tons and tons of
Iron, steel and cement," Gill stated. "If anyone tries to hit this cross,
they will not succeed." Gill explained that getting construction workers
to build the cross was a challenge. Upon hiring workers, Gill said he did
not tell them what they were building. But when the shape of the cross
became obvious, Gill said about 20 of his Muslim workers quit. However,
that did not stop other Muslims from continuing to peacefully work on the
cross alongside Christians.
One particular Muslim named Mohammad Ali  not to be confused with
the boxing legend, Muhammad Ali works on the cross' construction as a
volunteer for an astonishing 98 hours a week and considers it a "work of
God. "Henry has supported me well over the years, helping with the birth
of my children, with medicine, their education, so I don't need a daily
wage," Ali told the Post.

Many of the area Christians are concerned that the cross will only further
escalate religious tensions in the area and bring about more attacks against
them Although many of Gill's friends are concerned with his safety since
they believe he has a target on his back, Gill said he doesn't worry about
the possibility that Muslims are out to get him. He leaves his safety in
the hands of God, who was the one who initially called him to take action.
Gill referred to Psalm 91. "Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, 'He is
my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust,'" Psalm 91 reads. "Surely
he will save you from the fowler's snare and from the deadly pestilence."

Although Gill said he wanted to build his cross higher than any other
cross in the world, his structure does not top the list of the world's
tallest crosses. "The Great Cross" in St. Augustine, Florida, still holds
the title for the world's largest cross, as it stands in at 208 feet in
height. Gill said that his cross will be the largest cross constructed
in Asia When the Cross and its lighting system are finally completed later
this year, Gill said he plans to hold an inaugural ceremony to honor its
construction and plans to invite Pope Francis, Hillary Clinton, Queen Elizabeth
and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Tips from Padre Pio for Those Who Are Suffering

If your hope is weakening and slowly dying, you should read this
Every now and then, God sends extraordinary people to our world who
act as a bridge between earth and heaven, and they help thousands of people
to enjoy eternal Paradise. The twentieth century gave us an especially
unique one: the Capuchin friar Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, who was born in
that small town in the south of Italy and died in 1968 in San Giovanni
Rotondo. Saint John Paull II raised him to the altars in 2002 during a
canonization ceremony that beat all attendance records. Today, it can be
said that he is the most venerated saint in Italy.

Padre Pio received special gifts from God, such as the discernment of
souls and his capacity to read consciences; miraculous healings; bilocation;
the gift of tears; the fragrance of roses that he gave off; and, above
all, the stigmata in his feet, hands and side that he suffered for 50 years.

Throughout his life, he wrote thousands of letters to those to whom
he gave spiritual direction. Those letters are a source of practical Christian
wisdom that is very relevant today.

Ideas to help in the face of suffering

We offer our readers this small selection of ideas from Padre Pío
regarding suffering, taken from those very letters. They go straight to
the point. They give us hope and lift up our soul:

1. "If you can talk with the Lord in prayer, talk to him, offer him
your praise; if, due to great weariness, you cannot speak, do not find
displeasure in the ways of the Lord. Stay in the room like servants of
the court do, and make a gesture of reverence. He will see you, and your
presence will be pleasing to him. He will bless your silence and at another
time you will find consolation when he takes you by the hand."

2. "The more bitterness you experience, the more love you will receive."

3. "Jesus wants to fill your whole Heart."

4. "God wants his omnipotence to reside in your powerlessness."

5. "Faith is the torch that guides the steps of the spiritually desolate."

6. "In the uproar of the passions and of reverses of fortune, we are
upheld by the comforting hope of God's inexhaustible mercy."

7. "Put all your trust only in God."

8. "The best consolation is that which comes from prayer."

9. "Fear nothing. On the contrary, consider yourself very fortunate
to have been made worthy to participate in the sufferings of the Man-God."

10. "God leaves you in that darkness for his glory; here is a great
opportunity for your spiritual progress."

11. "The darkness that sometimes clouds the sky of your souls is light:
by means of it, when it arrives, you believe you are in darkness and you
have the impression that you are in the midst of a burning briar patch.
It's true that, when brambles burn, it gets smoky all around and the disoriented
spirit is afraid of not seeing or understanding anything anymore. But then
God speaks and makes himself present to the soul, that glimpses, understands,
loves and trembles."

12. "My Jesus, love is what sustains me."

13. "Happiness is only found in heaven."

14. "When you feel despised, imitate the kingfisher, who builds its
nest on the masts of ships. That is to say, raise yourself up above the
earth, elevate yourselves with your mind and heart to God, who is the only
one who can console you and give you strength to withstand the trial in
a holy way."

15. "Be certain that the more the attacks of the devil increase, that
much closer is God to your soul."

16. "Bless the Lord for your suffering and accept to drink the chalice
of Gethsemane."

17. "Be capable of bearing bitter sufferings during your whole life
so you can participate in the sufferings of Christ."

18. "Suffering born in a Christian way is the condition that God, the
author of all grace and of all the gifts that lead to salvation, has established
for granting us glory."

19. "Remember that we cannot triumph in battle if not through prayer;
the choice is yours."

20. "Prayer is the best weapon we have; it is a key that opens God's
heart."

Why Do So Many Misunderstand Pope Francis?

Here's how not to make the same mistake

This week Pope Francis found himself in yet another media firestorm.
Did he really say that Palestinians leader Mahmoud Abbas was an angel
of peace? CNN clarifies the controversy here. It turns out the Pope gave
Abbas a commemorative medal just as he does other visiting politicians.
On the medal is an angel of peace and, in explaining the medal, the pope
encouraged Abbas (as he encourages other politicians) to be an angel of
peace.
The misunderstanding unlocks a greater problem with Francis papacy.
In many ways it cannot be denied that Francis papacy is divisive. His
actions and words are misunderstood so often that we must ask why the problem
occurs and what can be done about it. Some of it has to do with Francis
informal, off the cuff style. He would rather risk some misunderstanding
than to be hedged about with so many restrictions that he cannot speak
from the heart.

However, there are several factors that contribute to the problem which
are no fault of Pope Francis. First we have the language barrier. The
Pope usually communicates in Italian or Spanish. Subtleties of subtext
and connotation are invariably lost in translation. Not only must the Italian
and Spanish be translated into English, but the words are translated into
every global tongue. To complicate matters further, with instant global
communications the words are no sooner out of the Pontiffs mouth than
they are splashed across the worlds headlines. Public figures have never
had to cope with such constant accessibility and instant communication.
The third essential problem is the cultural barrier. The Pope is from Argentina.
Like every pope before him, he brings his own worldview, personal history
and cultural background to the papacy. It is impossible for everyone to
understand the full context of his communications because it is impossible
for everyone to understand what it means to be an Argentinian.

Communication is a two-way street, and in addition to the linguistic,
media and cultural difficulties every public figure experiences, one must
also consider the person who is receiving the communications. Every communication
is filtered through the ears and eyes of the person receiving the message.
Whatever Pope Francis says, therefore, will be perceived in a different
way depending on each persons personal background and bias.

Consequently, a North American progressive may very honestly perceive
Pope Francis as a typical pro-gay, socialist left winger while a social
conservative may see Pope Francis as a strong anti-abortion, pro-family
traditional Catholic leader. In other words, those receiving the message
may only hear the message they want to hear. When Pope Francis turns out
to be opposed to same-sex marriage and womens ordination the progressive
will either block out the message or devise some trick to pretend it is
not really Pope Francis speaking.

Likewise, the social conservative might hear that Pope Francis seems
to oppose capitalism, is open to helping divorced and re-married Catholics,
and says he is not the one to judge people with same-sex attraction, and
become upset because the Pope challenges his pre-conceived ideas.

Finally, Pope Francislike every public figurehas to deal with the
humiliation of having his words and actions dissected and deliberately
misinterpreted by the worlds press. The mainstream journalists on Vatican
duty rarely have enough education in Catholic matters to report accurately,
and when they do, too often their reporting is biased. They are selective
in what they report, slant the stories to cater to their editors political
viewpoint and often miss the point of both the Popes actions and the overall
priorities and perspectives of the Catholic Church.

Therefore, here are some guidelines to avoid misunderstanding Pope Francis.
First of all, dont believe the headlines. Headlines are designed to grab
your attention, not to communicate the story accurately. Dont believe
the website headlines. Dont believe the blog headlines. Dont believe
the Facebook headlines. Dont believe the newspaper headlines.

Secondly, try to get your news about the Catholic church from reliable
Catholic news sources like Aleteia, Catholic News Service and ZENIT. These
online sources may not be as exciting as sensational blogs, salacious Facebook
stories or tabloid gossip, but they will use reporters who understand Pope
Francis and the mission of the Catholic Church.

Thirdly, make a real attempt to get to know Pope Francis as he really
isnot as the media presents him. There are plenty of good biographies
on Francis and plenty of good books with his speeches, homilies and writings.
Try to understand his cultural, religious and political background. Take
time to understand how the turmoil of events in Argentina during his lifetime
have formed his spirituality, his teaching and his pastoral role in the
church. Most of all, get to know him as the shepherd of souls, the compassionate
pastor and the loving Holy Father. Remember who he is and who God has called
him to be.

Finally, remember to really pray for Pope Francis. As you do you will
come to understand him in the deepest and truest way. The Holy Spirit
will show you how to understand Pope Francis and why he has been chosen
at this time to lead Christs Church on earth.

The Future Of The Catholic Church

I'm sticking with a loving, global, imperfect church

Whether he is wearing a poncho, addressing congress, or admitting he
is a bit of a Luddite, it seems Pope Francis rarely goes a day without
making the news. And it's not just Catholics who seem to be hanging on
the Holy Father's every word. People of all backgrounds respect this pope's
concern for the poor, his candor, his joy. We never know what Pope Francis
is going to do next. And that's exactly what is so exciting.
Francis reminds us to be open to the God of surprises. And he continually
uses the attention directed toward him to direct his followers back to
Christ. I've heard stories of many young Catholics who once felt alienated,
now reconsidering a relationship with the church, thanks to Francis' example.
But while Francis may make the church more inviting, he is not reason enough
to stay. Thankfully, there are many good reasons to feel hopeful about
the future of the Catholic Church, and many reasons for young Catholics
to stick around, long after the Francis frenzy fades. Here are just a few:
Growing emphasis on the global nature of the Church. Thanks to the
wonders of the Internet, it's easier than ever for young people to connect
with people around the world, and we want our church to reflect that diversity.
The 20 newest cardinals appointed by Pope Francis represent 18 different
countries. The group is diverse both geographically and ideologically,
which will hopefully help to raise awareness of the wide variety of challenges
faced by Catholics in different regions of the globe. Already, global voices
are gaining prominence: African bishops haveexpressed concern over struggles
ranging from poverty to polygamy to Boko Haram. And Cardinal Luis Tagle
of the Philippines recently noted the struggles faced by many workers in
the Philippines.

Stronger partnerships between lay Catholics and religious orders. Many
religious orders are formally collaborating with lay men and women in an
effort to increase awareness of their charisms. The Jesuit Collaborative,
in part, runs leadership programs and retreat programs for young adults
who want to be steeped in Ignatian spirituality. The Sisters of Mercy have
established the Mercy Associates, of which I am a member. This means I
have pledged to try to live out the values of ministry, prayer, and spirituality
in my own life as a lay, soon-to-be-married woman. The Sisters of Mercy
work closely with the Associates, and see us as partners in their mission
and ministry.

As many young people continue to seek meaningful experiences of community,
these partnerships can offer a steady connection to a faith community even
as we move from place to place, helping us to incorporate this spirituality
into our everyday lives. In addition, I know individuals interested in
building new communities of religious around the idea of temporary vows,
where members commit to some of the traditional vows (poverty, chastity,
and obedience/service) within the context of a community, for a limited
time, instead of a lifetime.

Increasing support for women in church leadership roles. Since the Second
Vatican Council, women have served in an unprecedented number of leadership
roles in the church. They have led Catholic parishes, schools, hospitals,
and social service agencies. A large number of women are professional lay
ministers and theologians, and some teach in Catholic seminaries. Pope
Francis is among those calling for a greater role for women, especially
in places of authority in the church. However, in this regard, little progress
has been made, and Francis himself often uses disheartening terminology
when talking about women. And while some Catholics hope for further discussion
about the ordination of women to the priesthood, Francis has said that
the ordination of women "is not a question open to discussion." However,
many Catholics--men and women--have suggested a number of creative ways
for Catholic women to hold positions of power in the church, like heading
a congregation or council in the Roman Curia, serving on the diplomatic
corps of the Holy See, or serving as a cardinal, deacon, or lay preacher.
Young Catholics accustomed to seeing women succeed in the workplace hopefully
will have a chance to see become leaders in a faith setting, as well.

Increasing efforts to listen. Young Catholics want to be heard; and
they have ideas worth hearing. Several dioceses made deliberate efforts
to collect the opinions of Catholics at the parish level prior to the Synod
on the Family. I hope that church leaders will hear the pain of those who
feel alienated, and that they will listen to the ways in which it has sometimes
caused that pain. I feel hopeful that our church ismoving toward greater
accountability for the tragedy of sexual abuse by clergy. I hope that church
leaders will be deliberate about encouraging people to be their most authentic
selves. The future of our faith depends on our ability to be truly present
to one another right now.

A continued call to love. Many young people find hope in Pope Francis,
because he constantly reminds us of what Christ reminded us: Love one another.
When people worry about the future of the church, so often those worries
are related to the tangible things, the buildings, the schools, the smells
and bells of the liturgy. And the church does, in fact, include those things.
But it's all too easy to forget that the church also exists in each of
us. It exists in the parents bundling up their children to go to Mass.
It exists in the young person doubting God. It exists in the man kneeling
before the Eucharist. It exists in the Catholic Workers who know the guests
at their soup kitchen by name. It exists in the anti-death penalty advocates,
in the people in orange jumpsuits outside the White House protesting the
prison at Guantánamo Bay. It exists in the grandmothers praying
rosaries for their grandchildren, and in the grandchildren running circles
around their grandparents. The church exists in those who have left it,
in those who are angry or sorrowful because of the church's own sins. It
exists in the forgiveness in the genocide survivors I have met in Rwanda,
and in the men I know serving time at San Quentin State Prison. It exists
in people of all classes, races, and sexual identities. It does not know
political or pastoral boundaries. The church goes out to the margins. It
is at the margins. And it is at the center of all we do.

The church is imperfect. I am in love with the church, so it will always
have the ability to break my heart. And it has done so with some frequency.
But my vulnerability, that brokenness, often allows an entry point for
the Holy Spirit. Although survey after survey tells me that many young
people are opting out of the whole religion thing, I've found that the
best way for me to deal with my frustrations with the church is to delve
more deeply into my faith. And then, more often than not, I find a sign
of hope, of the Spirit at work, out of sight, even when the church or the
world seem stagnant and immutable. For many young people, in fact, the
lessons we have learned through the Catholic Church have informed our desire
to work against the injustices within it. I care about this beautiful,
controversial, hierarchical, historic, flawed, inspired, blessed, excruciatingly
slow-moving institution. I don't know what lies in store for the church.
But persevering through uncertainty with hope, is exactly what it means
to have faith.

The church is spirit led. So wherever the church goes, I am staying
with it. And I am here by choice. I am here because I believe, and because
every day I must confront my unbelief. I don't always agree with everything
my church leaders say. But I trust that God will either transform their
hearts or mine. Likely both. Hopefully soon. In the mean time, all we can
do is keep working with others to try to build up the kingdom of God, even
if we can't quite tell what it will look like. Because we believe that
the Holy Spirit will continue to guide the church toward what is true and
good and beautiful. We never know what the Holy Spirit will do next. And
that's exactly what is so exciting.

Kerry Weber is managing editor of America and the author of "Mercy in
the City."

Parrikar says Christianity sweetens Indian society

He also lauded the Christian peace efforts and said such moves are based
on the Christian teaching to love the neighbor.
Posted on May 4, 2015, New Delhi:

Christianity is a sweetener like sugar in the Indian society and the
nation appreciates the Christian efforts for peace and development in the
country, defense minister and BJP leader Manohar Parrikar has said. He
said the sugary words on Friday while addressing a gathering of some 2,000
people, largely Christians, gathered to felicitate Bishop Jacob Barnabas,
who was installed as the first bishop of the Syro-Malankara diocese of
Gurgaon, based in Delhi.
"You are like sugar in society. It adds sweetness," said Parrikar,
the former chief minster and native of Goa, where Christians are socially
and politically powerful.

He also lauded the Christian peace efforts and said such moves are based
on the Christian teaching to love the neighbor. In presence of Parrikar,
Cardinal Baselios Cleemis asserted the evangelization mission of the Church
and said Christians will continue to attract people to their religion.

We will continue our work. What is our work? It is to spread the joy
of the Gospel without offending anyone. There is no compromise on that,
said Cardinal Cleemis, head of the Malankara Church and president of the
Catholic Bishops Conference of India.

He said that Christian evangelization is to attract people to Christ
without offending anyone. That work will be done respecting the constitution
of India and without supporting forcible conversions. Delhi Chief Minister
Arvind Kejriwal Deputy chairman of Rajya Sabha P. J. Kurian were among
others to address the gathering along with Apostolic nuncio Archbishop
Salvatore Pennacchio. Kejriwal said the mission of his Aam Admi political
party is to "spiritualize" politics and requested the prayers of all Christians
saying be believes in the power of prayer.

He expressed concern over the attacks of churches in Delhi and said
he believes the criminals will be brought to book and punished soon. Speaking
in Hindi he said he trusts in the power of God in solving problems. He
and his party have been through seemingly irresolvable issues. Each time,
God shows the way out, he said. Kejriwal described Indian constitution
as a spiritual book and said its preamble stresses the equality of all
human beings. That is what the sacred books of every religion holds, he
said.

He said his party would work for establishing the equality of all Indians
and all parties should respect and uphold the values of the constitution.
The diocese of Delhi-Gurgaon covers 22 states in northern and eastern part
of India. It along with the newly erected Pune diocese covers the entire
area of India outside Kerala, it base. The establishment of this diocese
the Syro Malankara Church has "achieved" a long cherished dream, Archbishop
Pennachio said.

The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections,
2010-2050

Why Muslims Are Rising Fastest and the Unaffiliated Are Shrinking
as a Share of the Worlds Population

The religious profile of the world is rapidly changing, driven primarily
by differences in fertility rates and the size of youth populations among
the worlds major religions, as well as by people switching faiths. Over
the next four decades, Christians will remain the largest religious group,
but Islam will grow faster than any other major religion. If current trends
continue, by 2050

The number of Muslims will nearly equal the number of Christians around
the world.

Atheists, agnostics and other people who do not affiliate with any religion
 though increasing in countries such as the United States and France 
will make up a declining share of the worlds total population.

The global Buddhist population will be about the same size it was in 2010,
while the Hindu and Jewish populations will be larger than they are today.

In Europe, Muslims will make up 10% of the overall population.

India will retain a Hindu majority but also will have the largest Muslim
population of any country in the world, surpassing Indonesia.

In the United States, Christians will decline from more than three-quarters
of the population in 2010 to two-thirds in 2050, and Judaism will no longer
be the largest non-Christian religion. Muslims will be more numerous in
the U.S. than people who identify as Jewish on the basis of religion.

Four out of every 10 Christians in the world will live in sub-Saharan Africa

These are among the global religious trends highlighted in new demographic
projections by the Pew Research Center. The projections take into account
the current size and geographic distribution of the worlds major religions,
age differences, fertility and mortality rates, international migration
and patterns in conversion.

Projected Change in Global Population
As of 2010, Christianity was by far the worlds largest religion, with
an estimated 2.2 billion adherents, nearly a third (31%) of all 6.9 billion
people on Earth. Islam was second, with 1.6 billion adherents, or 23% of
the global population.
Islam Growing FastestIf current demographic trends continue, however,
Islam will nearly catch up by the middle of the 21st century. Between 2010
and 2050, the worlds total population is expected to rise to 9.3 billion,
a 35% increase.1 Over that same period, Muslims  a comparatively youthful
population with high fertility rates  are projected to increase by 73%.
The number of Christians also is projected to rise, but more slowly, at
about the same rate (35%) as the global population overall.

As a result, according to the Pew Research projections, by 2050 there
will be near parity between Muslims (2.8 billion, or 30% of the population)
and Christians (2.9 billion, or 31%), possibly for the first time in history.2

With the exception of Buddhists, all of the worlds major religious
groups are poised for at least some growth in absolute numbers in the coming
decades. The global Buddhist population is expected to be fairly stable
because of low fertility rates and aging populations in countries such
as China, Thailand and Japan.

Worldwide, the Hindu population is projected to rise by 34%, from a
little over 1 billion to nearly 1.4 billion, roughly keeping pace with
overall population growth. Jews, the smallest religious group for which
separate projections were made, are expected to grow 16%, from a little
less than 14 million in 2010 to 16.1 million worldwide in 2050.

Size and Projected Growth of Major Religious Groups

Adherents of various folk religions  including African traditional
religions, Chinese folk religions, Native American religions and Australian
aboriginal religions  are projected to increase by 11%, from 405 million
to nearly 450 million.

And all other religions combined  an umbrella category that includes
Bahais, Jains, Sikhs, Taoists and many smaller faiths  are projected
to increase 6%, from a total of approximately 58 million to more than 61
million over the same period.3

While growing in absolute size, however, folk religions, Judaism and
other religions (the umbrella category considered as a whole) will not
keep pace with global population growth. Each of these groups is projected
to make up a smaller percentage of the worlds population in 2050 than
it did in 2010.4

Projected Change in the Unaffiliated Population, 2010-2050
Similarly, the religiously unaffiliated population is projected to
shrink as a percentage of the global population, even though it will increase
in absolute number. In 2010, censuses and surveys indicate, there were
about 1.1 billion atheists, agnostics and people who do not identify with
any particular religion.5 By 2050, the unaffiliated population is expected
to exceed 1.2 billion. But, as a share of all the people in the world,
those with no religious affiliation are projected to decline from 16% in
2010 to 13% by the middle of this century.
At the same time, however, the unaffiliated are expected to continue
to increase as a share of the population in much of Europe and North America.
In the United States, for example, the unaffiliated are projected to grow
from an estimated 16% of the total population (including children) in 2010
to 26% in 2050.

As the example of the unaffiliated shows, there will be vivid geographic
differences in patterns of religious growth in the coming decades. One
of the main determinants of that future growth is where each group is geographically
concentrated today. Religions with many adherents in developing countries
 where birth rates are high, and infant mortality rates generally have
been falling  are likely to grow quickly. Much of the worldwide growth
of Islam and Christianity, for example, is expected to take place in sub-Saharan
Africa. Todays religiously unaffiliated population, by contrast, is heavily
concentrated in places with low fertility and aging populations, such as
Europe, North America, China and Japan.

Total Fertility Rate by Religion, 2010-2015
Globally, Muslims have the highest fertility rate, an average of 3.1
children per woman  well above replacement level (2.1), the minimum typically
needed to maintain a stable population.6 Christians are second, at 2.7
children per woman. Hindu fertility (2.4) is similar to the global average
(2.5). Worldwide, Jewish fertility (2.3 children per woman) also is above
replacement level. All the other groups have fertility levels too low to
sustain their populations: folk religions (1.8 children per woman), other
religions (1.7), the unaffiliated (1.7) and Buddhists (1.6).
Age Distribution of Religious Groups, 2010Another important determinant
of growth is the current age distribution of each religious group  whether
its adherents are predominantly young, with their prime childbearing years
still ahead, or older and largely past their childbearing years.

In 2010, more than a quarter of the worlds total population (27%) was
under the age of 15. But an even higher percentage of Muslims (34%) and
Hindus (30%) were younger than 15, while the share of Christians under
15 matched the global average (27%). These bulging youth populations are
among the reasons that Muslims are projected to grow faster than the worlds
overall population and that Hindus and Christians are projected to roughly
keep pace with worldwide population growth.
All the remaining groups have smaller-than-average youth populations,
and many of them have disproportionately large numbers of adherents over
the age of 59. For example, 11% of the worlds population was at least
60 years old in 2010. But fully 20% of Jews around the world are 60 or
older, as are 15% of Buddhists, 14% of Christians, 14% of adherents of
other religions (taken as a whole), 13% of the unaffiliated and 11% of
adherents of folk religions. By contrast, just 7% of Muslims and 8% of
Hindus are in this oldest age category.

Projected Cumulative Change Due to Religious Switching, 2010-2050
In addition to fertility rates and age distributions, religious switching
is likely to play a role in the growth of religious groups. But conversion
patterns are complex and varied. In some countries, it is fairly common
for adults to leave their childhood religion and switch to another faith.
In others, changes in religious identity are rare, legally cumbersome or
even illegal.

The Pew Research Center projections attempt to incorporate patterns
in religious switching in 70 countries where surveys provide information
on the number of people who say they no longer belong to the religious
group in which they were raised. In the projection model, all directions
of switching are possible, and they may be partially offsetting. In the
United States, for example, surveys find that some people who were raised
with no religious affiliation have switched to become Christians, while
some who grew up as Christians have switched to become unaffiliated. These
types of patterns are projected to continue as future generations come
of age. (For more details on how and where switching was modeled, see the
Methodology. For alternative growth scenarios involving either switching
in additional countries or no switching at all, see Chapter 1.)

Over the coming decades, Christians are expected to experience the largest
net losses from switching. Globally, about 40 million people are projected
to switch into Christianity, while 106 million are projected to leave,
with most joining the ranks of the religiously unaffiliated. (See chart
above.)

Impact of Migration on Population Projections, by RegionAll told, the
unaffiliated are expected to add 97 million people and lose 36 million
via switching, for a net gain of 61 million by 2050. Modest net gains through
switching also are expected for Muslims (3 million), adherents of folk
religions (3 million) and members of other religions (2 million). Jews
are expected to experience a net loss of about 300,000 people due to switching,
while Buddhists are expected to lose nearly 3 million.

International migration is another factor that will influence the projected
size of religious groups in various regions and countries.
Forecasting future migration patterns is difficult, because migration
is often linked to government policies and international events that can
change quickly. For this reason, many population projections do not include
migration in their models. But working with researchers at the International
Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Laxenburg, Austria, the Pew Research
Center has developed an innovative way of using data on past migration
patterns to estimate the religious composition of migrant flows in the
decades ahead. (For details on how the projections were made, see Chapter
1.)

The impact of migration can be seen in the examples shown in the graph
at the right, which compares projection scenarios with and without migration
in the regions where it will have the greatest impact. In Europe, for instance,
the Muslim share of the population is expected to increase from 5.9% in
2010 to 10.2% in 2050 when migration is taken into account along with other
demographic factors that are driving population change, such as fertility
rates and age. Without migration, the Muslim share of Europes population
in 2050 is projected to be nearly two percentage points lower (8.4%). In
North America, the Hindu share of the population is expected to nearly
double in the decades ahead, from 0.7% in 2010 to 1.3% in 2050, when migration
is included in the projection models. Without migration, the Hindu share
of the regions population would remain about the same (0.8%).

In the Middle East and North Africa, the continued migration of Christians
into the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries (Bahrain, Kuwait,
Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates) is expected to
offset the exodus of Christians from other countries in the region.7 If
migration were not factored into the 2050 projections, the estimated Christian
share of the regions population would drop below 3%. With migration factored
in, however, the estimated Christian share is expected to be just above
3% (down from nearly 4% in 2010).

Beyond the Year 2050

Long-Term Projections of Christian and Muslim Shares of Worlds PopulationThis
report describes how the global religious landscape would change if current
demographic trends continue. With each passing year, however, there is
a chance that unforeseen events  war, famine, disease, technological innovation,
political upheaval, etc.  will alter the size of one religious group or
another. Owing to the difficulty of peering more than a few decades into
the future, the projections stop at 2050.
Readers may wonder, though, what would happen to the population trajectories
highlighted in this report if they were projected into the second half
of this century. Given the rapid projected increase from 2010 to 2050 in
the Muslim share of the worlds population, would Muslims eventually outnumber
Christians? And, if so, when?

The answer depends on continuation of the trends described in Chapter
1. If the main projection model is extended beyond 2050, the Muslim share
of the worlds population would equal the Christian share, at roughly 32%
each, around 2070. After that, the number of Muslims would exceed the number
of Christians, but both religious groups would grow, roughly in tandem,
as shown in the graph above. By the year 2100, about 1% more of the worlds
population would be Muslim (35%) than Christian (34%).

The projected growth of Muslims and Christians would be driven largely
by the continued expansion of Africas population. Due to the heavy concentration
of Christians and Muslims in this high-fertility region, both groups would
increase as a percentage of the global population. Combined, the worlds
two largest religious groups would make up more than two-thirds of the
global population in 2100 (69%), up from 61% in 2050 and 55% in 2010.

It bears repeating, however, that many factors could alter these trajectories.
For example, if a large share of Chinas population were to switch to Christianity
(as discussed in this sidebar), that shift alone could bolster Christianitys
current position as the worlds most populous religion. Or if disaffiliation
were to become common in countries with large Muslim populations  as it
is now in some countries with large Christian populations  that trend
could slow or reverse the increase in Muslim numbers.

In addition to making projections at the global level, this report projects
religious change in 198 countries and territories with at least 100,000
people as of 2010, covering 99.9% of the worlds population. Population
estimates for an additional 36 countries and territories are included in
regional and global totals throughout the report. The report also divides
the world into six major regions and looks at how each regions religious
composition is likely to change from 2010 to 2050, assuming that current
patterns in migration and other demographic trends continue.8

Due largely to high fertility, sub-Saharan Africa is projected to experience
the fastest overall growth, rising from 12% of the worlds population in
2010 to about 20% in 2050. The Middle East-North Africa region also is
expected to grow faster than the world as a whole, edging up from 5% of
the global population in 2010 to 6% in 2050. Ongoing growth in both regions
will fuel global increases in the Muslim population. In addition, sub-Saharan
Africas Christian population is expected to double, from 517 million in
2010 to 1.1 billion in 2050. The share of the worlds Christians living
in sub-Saharan Africa will rise from 24% in 2010 to 38% in 2050.

Meanwhile, the Asia-Pacific region is expected to have a declining share
of the worlds population (53% in 2050, compared with 59% in 2010). This
will be reflected in the slower growth of religions heavily concentrated
in the region, including Buddhism and Chinese folk religions, as well as
slower growth of Asias large unaffiliated population. One exception is
Hindus, who are overwhelmingly concentrated in India, where the population
is younger and fertility rates are higher than in China or Japan. As previously
mentioned, Hindus are projected to roughly keep pace with global population
growth. Indias large Muslim population also is poised for rapid growth.
Although India will continue to have a Hindu majority, by 2050 it is projected
to have the worlds largest Muslim population, surpassing Indonesia.

The remaining geographic regions also will contain declining shares
of the worlds population: Europe is projected to go from 11% to 8%, Latin
American and the Caribbean from 9% to 8%, and North America from 5% to
a little less than 5%.

Europe is the only region where the total population is projected to
decline. Europes Christian population is expected to shrink by about 100
million people in the coming decades, dropping from 553 million to 454
million. While Christians will remain the largest religious group in Europe,
they are projected to drop from three-quarters of the population to less
than two-thirds. By 2050, nearly a quarter of Europeans (23%) are expected
to have no religious affiliation, and Muslims will make up about 10% of
the regions population, up from 5.9% in 2010. Over the same period, the
number of Hindus in Europe is expected to roughly double, from a little
under 1.4 million (0.2% of Europes population) to nearly 2.7 million (o.4%),
mainly as a result of immigration. Buddhists appear headed for similarly
rapid growth in Europe  a projected rise from 1.4 million to 2.5 million.

Religious Composition of the United States, 2010-2050In North America,
Muslims and followers of other religions are the fastest-growing religious
groups. In the United States, for example, the share of the population
that belongs to other religions is projected to more than double  albeit
from a very small base  rising from 0.6% to 1.5%.9 Christians are projected
to decline from 78% of the U.S. population in 2010 to 66% in 2050, while
the unaffiliated are expected to rise from 16% to 26%. And by the middle
of the 21st century, the United States is likely to have more Muslims (2.1%
of the population) than people who identify with the Jewish faith (1.4%).10

In Latin America and the Caribbean, Christians will remain the largest
religious group, making up 89% of the population in 2050, down slightly
from 90% in 2010. Latin Americas religiously unaffiliated population is
projected to grow both in absolute number and percentage terms, rising
from about 45 million people (8%) in 2010 to 65 million (9%) in 2050.11

Changing Religious Majorities
Several countries are projected to have a different religious majority
in 2050 than they did in 2010. The number of countries with Christian majorities
is expected to decline from 159 to 151, as Christians are projected to
drop below 50% of the population in Australia, Benin, Bosnia-Herzegovina,
France, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Republic of Macedonia and the
United Kingdom.

Countries That Will No Longer Have a Christian Majority in 2050

Muslims in 2050 are expected to make up more than 50% of the population
in 51 countries, two more than in 2010, as both the Republic of Macedonia
and Nigeria are projected to gain Muslim majorities. But Nigeria also will
continue to have a very large Christian population. Indeed, Nigeria is
projected to have the third-largest Christian population in the world by
2050, after the United States and Brazil.

As of 2050, the largest religious group in France, New Zealand and the
Netherlands is expected to be the unaffiliated.

About These Projections

While many people have offered predictions about the future of religion,
these are the first formal demographic projections using data on age, fertility,
mortality, migration and religious switching for multiple religious groups
around the world. Demographers at the Pew Research Center in Washington,
D.C., and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
in Laxenburg, Austria, gathered the input data from more than 2,500 censuses,
surveys and population registers, an effort that has taken six years and
will continue.

The projections cover eight major groups: Buddhists, Christians, Hindus,
Jews, Muslims, adherents of folk religions, adherents of other religions
and the unaffiliated (see Appendix C: Defining the Religious Groups). Because
censuses and surveys in many countries do not provide information on religious
subgroups  such as Sunni and Shia Muslims or Catholic, Protestant and
Orthodox Christians  the projections are for each religious group as a
whole. Data on subgroups of the unaffiliated are also unavailable in many
countries. As a result, separate projections are not possible for atheists
or agnostics.

The projection model was developed in collaboration with researchers
in the Age and Cohort Change Project at IIASA, who are world leaders in
population projections methodology. The model uses an advanced version
of the cohort-component method typically employed by demographers to forecast
population growth. It starts with a population of baseline age groups,
or cohorts, divided by sex and religion. Each cohort is projected into
the future by adding likely gains (immigrants and people switching in)
and by subtracting likely losses (deaths, emigrants and people switching
out) year by year. The youngest cohorts, ages 0-4, are created by applying
age-specific fertility rates to each female cohort in the childbearing
years (ages 15-49), with children inheriting the mothers religion. For
more details, see the Methodology.12

In the process of gathering input data and developing the projection
model, the Pew Research Center previously published reports on the current
size and geographic distribution of major religious groups, including Muslims
(2009), Christians (2011) andseveral other faiths (2012). An initial set
of projections for one religious group, Muslims, was published in 2011,
although it did not attempt to take religious switching into account.

Some social theorists have suggested that as countries develop economically,
more of their inhabitants will move away from religious affiliation. While
that has been the general experience in some parts of the world, notably
Europe, it is not yet clear whether it is a universal pattern.13 In any
case, the projections in this report are not based on theories about economic
development leading to secularization.

Rather, the projections extend the recently observed patterns of religious
switching in all countries for which sufficient data are available (70
countries in all). In addition, the projections reflect the United Nations
expectation that in countries with high fertility rates, those rates gradually
will decline in coming decades, alongside rising female educational attainment.
And the projections assume that people gradually are living longer in most
countries. These and other key input data and assumptions are explained
in detail in Chapter 1 and the Methodology (Appendix A).
Since religious change has never previously been projected on this
scale, some cautionary words are in order. Population projections are estimates
built on current population data and assumptions about demographic trends,
such as declining birth rates and rising life expectancies in particular
countries. The projections are what will occur if the current data are
accurate and current trends continue. But many events  scientific discoveries,
armed conflicts, social movements, political upheavals, natural disasters
and changing economic conditions, to name just a few  can shift demographic
trends in unforeseen ways. That is why the projections are limited to a
40-year time frame, and subsequent chapters of this report try to give
a sense of how much difference it could make if key assumptions were different.

For example, Chinas 1.3 billion people (as of 2010) loom very large
in global trends. At present, about 5% of Chinas population is estimated
to be Christian, and more than 50% is religiously unaffiliated. Because
reliable figures on religious switching in China are not available, the
projections do not contain any forecast for conversions in the worlds
most populous country. But if Christianity expands in China in the decades
to come  as some experts predict  then by 2050, the global numbers of
Christians may be higher than projected, and the decline in the percentage
of the worlds population that is religiously unaffiliated may be even
sharper. (For more details on the possible impact of religious switching
in China, see Chapter 1.)

Finally, readers should bear in mind that within every major religious
group, there is a spectrum of belief and practice. The projections are
based on the number of people whoself-identify with each religious group,
regardless of their level of observance. What it means to be Christian,
Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish or a member of any other faith may vary
from person to person, country to country, and decade to decade.

Acknowledgements

These population projections were produced by the Pew Research Center
as part of the Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures project, which analyzes
religious change and its impact on societies around the world. Funding
for the Global Religious Futures project comes from The Pew Charitable
Trusts and the John Templeton Foundation.

Many staff members in the Pew Research Centers Religion & Public
Life project contributed to this effort. Conrad Hackett was the lead researcher
and primary author of this report. Alan Cooperman served as lead editor.
Anne Shi and Juan Carlos Esparza Ochoa made major contributions to data
collection, storage and analysis. Bill Webster created the graphics and
Stacy Rosenberg and Ben Wormald oversaw development of the interactive
data presentations and the Global Religious Futures website. Sandra Stencel,
Greg Smith, Michael Lipka and Aleksandra Sandstrom provided editorial assistance.
The report was number-checked by Shi, Esparza Ochoa, Claire Gecewicz and
Angelina Theodorou.

Several researchers in the Age and Cohort Change project of the International
Institute for Applied Systems Analysis collaborated on the projections,
providing invaluable expertise on advanced (multistate) population modeling
and standardization of input data. Marcin Stonawski wrote the cutting-edge
software used for these projections and led the collection and analysis
of European data. Michaela Potan?oková standardized the fertility
data. Vegard Skirbekk coordinated IIASAs research contributions. Additionally,
Guy Abel at the Vienna Institute of Demography helped construct the country-level
migration flow data used in the projections.

Over the past six years, a number of former Pew Research Center staff
members also played critical roles in producing the population projections.
Phillip Connor prepared the migration input data, wrote descriptions of
migration results and methods, and helped write the chapters on each religious
group and geographic region. Noble Kuriakose was involved in nearly all
stages of the project and helped draft the chapter on demographic factors
and the Methodology. Former intern Joseph Naylor helped design maps, and
David McClendon, another former intern, helped research global patterns
of religious switching. The original concept for this study was developed
by Luis Lugo, former director of the Pew Research Centers Religion &
Public Life project, with assistance from former senior researcher Brian
J. Grim and visiting senior research fellow Mehtab Karim.

Others at the Pew Research Center who provided editorial or research
guidance include Michael Dimock, Claudia Deane, Scott Keeter, Jeffrey S.
Passel and DVera Cohn. Communications support was provided by Katherine
Ritchey and Russ Oates.

We also received very helpful advice and feedback on portions of this
report from Nicholas Eberstadt, Henry Wendt Scholar in Political Economy,
American Enterprise Institute; Roger Finke, Director of the Association
of Religion Data Archives and Distinguished Professor of Sociology and
Religious Studies, The Pennsylvania State University; Carl Haub, Senior
Demographer, Population Reference Bureau; Todd Johnson, Associate Professor
of Global Christianity and Director of the Center for the Study of Global
Christianity, Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary; Ariela Keysar, Associate
Research Professor and Associate Director of the Institute for the Study
of Secularism in Society and Culture, Trinity College; Chaeyoon Lim, Associate
Professor of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Arland Thornton,
Research Professor in the Population Studies Center, University of Michigan;
Jenny Trinitapoli, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Demography and Religious
Studies, The Pennsylvania State University; David Voas, Professor of Population
Studies and Acting Director of the Institute for Social and Economic Research,
University of Essex; Robert Wuthnow, Andlinger Professor of Sociology and
Director of the Center for the Study of Religion, Princeton University;
and Fenggang Yang, Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center on
Religion and Chinese Society, Purdue University.

While the data collection and projection methodology were guided by
our consultants and advisers, the Pew Research Center is solely responsible
for the interpretation and reporting of the data.

Roadmap to the Report

The remainder of this report details the projections from multiple angles.
The first chapter looks at the demographic factors that shape the projections,
including sections on fertility rates, life expectancy, age structure,
religious switching and migration. The next chapter details projections
by religious group, with separate sections on Christians, Muslims, the
religiously unaffiliated, Hindus, Buddhists, adherents of folk or traditional
religions, members of other religions (consolidated into a single group)
and Jews. A final chapter takes a region-by-region look at the projections,
including separate sections on Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Latin America
and the Caribbean, the Middle East and North Africa, North America and
sub-Saharan Africa.

1.This overall projection (9.3 billion in 2050) matches the medium
variant forecast in the United Nations Population Divisions World Population
Prospects, 2010 revision. A recent update from the United Nations has a
somewhat higher estimate, 9.55 billion. The U.N. does not make projections
for religious groups. ?
2.Christianity began about six centuries before Islam, a head start
that helps explain why some scholars believe that, in the past, Christians
always have been more numerous than Muslims around the world. The Pew Research
Center consulted several scholars on this historical question. Todd M.
Johnson, co-editor of the Atlas of Global Christianity, and Houssain
Kettani, author of independent estimates of the growth of Islam, contend
that the number of Christians always has exceeded the number of Muslims.
But some other experts, including Oxford University demographer David Coleman
and Columbia University historian Richard W. Bulliet, say it is possible
that Muslims may have outnumbered Christians globally sometime between
1000 and 1600 C.E., as Muslim populations expanded and Christian populations
were decimated by the Black Death in Europe. All of the experts acknowledged
that estimates of the size of religious groups in the Middle Ages are fraught
with uncertainty. ?
3.Although some faiths in the other religions category have millions
of adherents around the world, censuses and surveys in many countries do
not measure them specifically. Because of the scarcity of census and survey
data, Pew Research has not projected the size of individual religions within
this category. Estimates of the global size of these faiths generally come
from other sources, such as the religious groups themselves. By far the
largest of these groups is Sikhs, who numbered about 25 million in 2010,
according to the World Religion Database. Estimates from other sources
on the size of additional groups in this category can be found in the sidebar
in Chapter 2. ?
4.Jews make up such a small share of the global population, however,
that the projected decline is not visible when percentages are rounded
to one decimal place. Jews comprised 0.20% of the worlds population in
2010 and are projected to comprise 0.17% in 2050. Both figures are rounded
to 0.2% (two-tenths of 1%) in the charts and tables in this report. ?
5.In many countries, censuses and demographic surveys do not enumerate
atheists and agnostics as distinct populations, so it is not possible to
reliably estimate the global size of these subgroups within the broad category
of the religiously unaffiliated. ?
6.The standard measure of fertility in this report is the Total Fertility
Rate. In countries with low infant and child mortality rates, a Total Fertility
Rate close to 2.1 children per woman is sufficient for each generation
to replace itself. Replacement-level fertility is higher in countries with
elevated mortality rates. For more information on how fertility shapes
population growth, see Chapter 1. ?
7.Most immigrants come to GCC countries as temporary workers. These
projections model a dynamic migrant population in GCC countries, in which
some migrants leave as others arrive and, over time, there are net gains
in the size of the foreign-born population within each GCC country. ?
8.The assumptions and trends used in these projections are discussed
in Chapter 1 and in the Methodology section (Appendix A). ?
9.As noted above, the other religions category includes many groups
 such as Bahais, Sikhs and Wiccans  that cannot be projected separately
due to lack of data on their fertility rates, age structure and other demographic
characteristics.?
10.People who identify their religion as Jewish in surveys are projected
to decline from an estimated 1.8% of the U.S. population in 2010 to 1.4%
in 2050. These figures, however, do not include cultural or ethnic
Jews  people who have Jewish ancestry but do not describe their present
religion as Jewish. A 2013 Pew Research survey found that more than one-in-five
U.S. Jewish adults (22%) say they are atheist, agnostic or nothing in particular,
but consider themselves Jewish aside from religion and have at least one
Jewish parent. For the purposes of the religious group projections in this
report, people who identify their religion as atheist, agnostic or nothing
in particular are categorized as unaffiliated. To avoid double-counting,
they are not included in the Jewish population. If the projected Jewish
numbers were expanded to include cultural or ethnic Jews, it is possible
that the size of the more broadly defined Jewish population might be greater
than the projected number of U.S. Muslims in 2050. ?
11.The global projections are for Christians as a whole and do not
attempt to calculate separate growth trajectories for subgroups such as
Catholics and Protestants. However, other studies by the Pew Research Center
show that Catholics have been declining and Protestants have been rising
as a percentage of the population in some Latin American countries. See
the Pew Research Centers 2014 report Religion in Latin America. ?
12.How accurate have population projections using the cohort-component
method been in the past? An overview of how previous projections for general
populations compare with actual population trends is provided in the National
Research Councils 2000 book Beyond Six Billion: Forecasting the Worlds
Population,http://www.nap.edu/catalog/9828/beyond-six-billion-forecasting-the-worlds-
population. ?
13.For example, there is little evidence of economic development leading
to religious disaffiliation in Muslim-majority countries. In Hindu-majority
India, religious affiliation remains nearly universal despite rapid social
and economic change. And in China, religious affiliation  though very
difficult to measure  may be rising along with economic development. ?

Jesus Christ and Prophet Muhammad Followed "The Golden
Rule"

Craig Considine

Posted: 04/24/2015 1:42 pm EDT Updated:
04/24/2015 1:59 pm EDT
Christianity and Islam are often painted as mortal enemies that will
be forever fighting in a war for religious supremacy. Christians and Muslims
would be wise to remember that Jesus Christ and Prophet Muhammad are kindred
spirits. By turning to their teachings, we can see that these two prophets
are brothers, not foes.
Jesus and the Prophet were proponents of peace. Jesus told his followers:
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God" (Matthew
5:9). Saint Peter, one of Christ's disciples, echoed this message of goodwill
by encouraging people to "turn away from evil and do good... seek peace
and pursue it" (Peter 3:11). Roughly 600 years after Jesus, Prophet Muhammad
revealed his revelations to the tribes of Arabia, where Muhammad was particularly
adamant about establishing peace. One of the Prophet's favorite sayings
was: "Forgive him who wrongs you, join him who cuts you off, do good to
him who does evil to you." He considered striving for peace even more important
than Islamic principles such as charity, fasting, and prayer. One of the
primary goals of the Prophet in Arabia was to unite all people, regardless
of whether they were Jews, Christians, or atheists. He stated in a hadith:
"It is keeping peace and good relations between people, as quarrels and
bad feelings destroy mankind" (Al-Bukhari). These passages show how Jesus
and Muhammad regarded goodwill and peace as more favorable than division
and war.

Along with peace, forgiveness is one of the main aspects of the teachings
of Christ and the Prophet. As a Catholic, I ask God for forgiveness on
a daily basis when I utter the words: "forgive us our trespasses, as we
forgive those who trespass against us" (Matthew 6:15). Jesus wanted people
to forgive others because it is only in forgiving others that God forgives
us for our sins. Christians are also asked by Christ to extend love to
all of humanity. He said: "I say to you hear: Love your enemies, And do
good to those who hate you" (Luke 6:27). Like Jesus, Prophet Muhammad forgave
his enemies. After a victorious battle in Mecca, Muhammad released his
enemies and told them that they were free to leave unharmed. The release
of his prisoners shows the Prophet's mercy and compassion because he could
have easily taken revenge by killing these defenseless enemies. Jesus and
Muhammad forgave their enemies because God is not harsh or revengeful,
but rather mild and gentle.

Christianity and Islam also teach people to speak kindly to one another
and not to gossip about others. Using cruel words is sinful in the eyes
of Christ and the Prophet. Jesus's emphasis on kindness is found in Ephesians
(4:29), which reads: "Let not corrupting talk come out of your months,
but only such as is good for building up... that it may give grace to those
who hear." Muhammad also advised people to avoid injuring other people
emotionally and physically. The Prophet was particularly concerned that
people in his community maintained good relations and looked beyond ethnic
and tribal rivalries. He stated: "... it is unworthy to curse any one;
and it is unworthy to abuse any one" (Al-Bukhari). Muhammad told his peers
that "kindness is a mark of faith and whoever has not kindness has not
faith" (Al-Bukhari). In our time of strife and conflict between Christianity
and Islam, Christians and Muslims should remember that being kind to one
another is one of the main teachings of both Jesus and Muhammad.

The most important bond that Jesus Christ and Prophet Muhammad share
is their love for humanity. Both of them cared for other people and groups
as much as their own followers. Jesus taught his followers to "Honor all
people, love the brotherhood" (1 Peter 2:17). Christ's love for humanity
is also seen in Philippians (2:1-2), which calls on human beings to comfort
and love one another and to be of "one accord, of one mind." The Prophet
Muhammad reiterated Jesus's love for humanity in stating "All God's creatures
are His family" (Al-Bukhari). He added: "None of you (truly believe) until
he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself" (Al-Bukhari). Christ
and the Prophet did not call for discord and separation. Harmony and unity
in society were much more important to them.

Jesus and Muhammad lived by "The Golden Rule," which means that they
wanted human beings to treat others as they would want to be treated. The
examples of Christ and the Prophet teach Christians and Muslims how they
can overcome animosity and bigotry in favor of generosity and coexistence.

Parishes to serve Indian faithful established in Lancaster

Two newly established Personal Parishes are thought to be the first
for Syro-Malabar Catholics in EuropeSyro-Malabar Catholics in England have been given two personal parishes
by the Bishop of Lancaster, the first time such parishes have been established
for the Indian eastern Church in Europe. The two personal parishes, St
Alphonsa in Blackpool and Ss Kuriakose Elias Chvara and Euphrasia in Preston,
will cater for the growing number of Syro-Malabar Catholics in that part
of England.

The Syro-Malabar Catholic Church is an Eastern Church in full communion
with Rome. Personal parishes serve specialised groups of people with particular
pastoral needs.

Earlier this year St Ignatius church in Preston, which had suffered
from declining Mass attendance, was saved after the Syro-Malabar Catholics
were asked to take it on. Several hundred live in the town, many employed
by the hospital.

Fr Mathew Jacob of the Syro-Malabar Church thanked Bishop Michael Campbell
of Lancaster, saying in a statement: We are very pleased and very grateful
to the Bishop. It is recognition by the diocese of the place of the Syro-Malabar
Church here. He said the personal parishes gave members of his church
a sense of identity and reference point, as well as recognition, security
and stability to our people. A chaplaincy for Syro-Malabar Catholics was
originally established by Bishop Patrick ODonoghue in 2004.

After vision of Christ, Nigerian bishop says rosary
will bring down Boko Haram

Rome, Italy, Apr 21, 2015 / 02:44 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A Nigerian bishop
says that he has seen Christ in a vision and now knows that the rosary
is the key to ridding the country of the Islamist terrorist organization
Boko Haram.

Bishop
Oliver Dashe Doeme says he is being driven by a God-given mandate to lead
others in praying the rosary until the extremist group disappears. Towards
the end of last year I was in my chapel before the Blessed Sacrament praying
the rosary, and then suddenly the Lord appeared, Bishop Dashe told CNA
April 18.

In the vision, the prelate said, Jesus didnt say anything at first,
but extended a sword toward him, and he in turn reached out for it. As
soon as I received the sword, it turned into a rosary, the bishop said,
adding that Jesus then told him three times: Boko Haram is gone.
I didnt need any prophet to give me the explanation, he said. It was
clear that with the rosary we would be able to expel Boko Haram. The bishop
said he didnt want to tell anyone, but felt that the Holy Spirit was
pushing him to do so.

He started with the priests of his diocese, and then told participants
in the April 17-19 #WeAreN2015 congress in Madrid, Spain. The event is
being sponsored by the Spanish Catholic sister groups hazteoir.org and
CitizenGo to gather ideas on how to preserve the Christian presence in
nations where they are most persecuted. Bishop Dashe leads the Diocese
of Maiduguri, in northeastern Nigeria's Borno State. In 2009, there were
around 125,000 Catholics under his guidance. After a surge in violence
from the Islamist extremist group called Boko Haram, today there are only
50 to 60 thousand left, he said. Most of those who fled sought safer areas
in other parts of Nigeria, he said. Some of the same families are now returning
home as armed forces from Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon liberate their homes.

In 2014, Boko Haram became known worldwide when members kidnapped nearly
300 girls from a school in Borno State. On March 7, 2015, five suicide
bombers killed 54 and wounded nearly three times as many in the capital
city of Maidaguri, where the bishop lives and works. The group has killed
1,000 people across Nigeria in the first three months of 2015, according
to Human Rights Watch, which reports that more than 6,000 have died in
Boko Haram-led violence since 2009. Just last month, the group pledged
its allegiance to ISIS  also known as the Islamic State  which launched
a bloody campaign in Iraq and Syria last summer. Meanwhile, Bishop Dashe
has just completed a consolation tour to communities in his diocese,
promoting forgiveness and continued faith. He believes he was asked by
Jesus to spread devotion to the rosary in order to aid them as they do
so. Maybe thats why he did it, said the bishop, referring to Jesus in
his vision.

Bishop Dashe said he has a strong devotion to Christs mother, and that
I never joke with Mamma Mary. I know she is here with us. And he is
not the only Nigerian bishop putting the future of the country in the hands
of Mary. The nations bishops conference has consecrated the country to
her twice in recent years Bishop Dashe believes that one day his diocese
will completely recover and grow thanks to her intercession. These terrorists
think that by burning our churches, burning our structures, they will destroy
Christanity. Never, Bishop Dashe told several hundred people from the
dais of the #WeAreN2015 congress. It may take a few months or a few years
but Boko Haram is gone.

He later told CNA that prayer, particularly the prayer of the rosary,
is (what) will deliver us from the claws of this demon, the demon of terrorism.
And of course, it is working.

The Catholic Bishops Conference of India has learnt with deep sorrow
and dismay the sad incident that took place at the Jesus and Mary School
in Ranaghat, West Bengal. The physical violence inflicted on the Nuns,
including raping an ailing 75 year old Nun, and the desecration of the
consecrated Hosts are ruthless inhuman acts, of which all citizens of India
should be ashamed of.

While condemning such dastardly acts, the Catholic Bishops Conference
of India expresses its solidarity with the victims of violence and earnestly
requests the Chief Minister of West Bengal to take appropriate action to
book the culprits and to provide adequate security and protection to the
nuns and to the religious institutions, whose selfless service has contributed
much to the development and progress of our dear Nation.

Meanwhile, fifteen Catholic bishops of northeast India representing
all seven northeastern India states meeting in Miao diocese in Eastern
Arunachal, 12-15 March, joined the Catholic Bishops Conference of India
(CBCI) in condemning the attack against Christians, rape of women and nuns
and lynching of rape accused. They condemned the attack and
gang rape of religious nuns at Ranaghat in Nadia district West Bengal,
14 March and expressed solidarity to the victims.

The joint statement released 14 ?March stated, The Catholic Bishops'
Conference of Northeast India, which met at Miao, Arunachal Pradesh is
pained to hear of the atrocious crime against religious women and church
property at Ranaghat, Nadia District, West Bengal. We express our deepest
sympathy and prayers for the victims. We appeal to the Government of West
Bengal to bring to culprit to book and to ensure the safety of church personnel
and church property. They have also strongly condemned the recent rape
related lynching incident in Dimapur (Nagaland State, NE India) stating
that no one should take law into their own hands. Salesian archbishop
Dominic Jala of Shillong is the president of Catholic Bishops' Conference
of Northeast India.

Salesian Bishop George Pallipparampil of Miao, is the host of this regional
council meeting.

Rape of Catholic nun, church attacks unnerve Indian
Christians

Anti-christian persecution

By Muneeza Naqvi, Associated Press March 17, 2015
An Indian man prayed as Christians and others held a candlelight
vigil outside the Sacred Heart cathedral in New Delhi to condemn the gang
rape of a nun at a Catholic missionary school in eastern India. (AP Photo/Saurabh
Das)

NEW DELHI  Indias Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Tuesday that he
was deeply concerned about the recent rape of a nun and the destruction
of a church, but Christian groups said his words did little to dispel the
fear gripping the tiny community since his rightwing Hindu government came
to power.

We are feeling very, very vulnerable, said John Dayal, a Christian
leader and social activist, on the sidelines of a conference of Indian
Christian groups. Over the weekend a nun in her 70s was gang-raped by a
group of men in the eastern state of West Bengal. The men who attacked
the Convent of Jesus and Mary School in Nadia district, 80 kilometers (50
miles) northeast of the state capital of Kolkata, also ransacked the chapel
and destroyed holy items, police said.

A day later, a church in the northern Haryana state was destroyed and
the vandals planted a flag with the name of the Hindu god Rama, news reports
said. While sexual violence is pervasive in India, and the motive for the
rape of the nun was unclear, a slew of attacks have taken place against
Indias Christian community, who make up little more than 2 percent of
the countrys 1.3 billion people. There is a sense of insecurity that
the state will not protect us. The incidents are happening all over India,
said the Rev. Sunil Dandge, a pastor from the southern city of Bangalore.

Modis massive electoral victory in May came on the back of promises
to overhaul Indias economy and root out endemic corruption. But he started
his foray into public life with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a militant
Hindu organization that is also the ideological parent group of the ruling
Bharatiya Janata Party. The RSS has long been accused of stoking hatred
against Muslims and Christians. While Modi played down religious issues
during the campaign, wary of alienating voters, nationalist voters turned
out for him in droves. For several Hindu rightwing groups, his win has
been viewed as their time to push their social and cultural agenda after
years on the political fringes.

Signs of trouble began to appear in December.

Rightwing Hindu groups allied with the BJP conducted a series of ceremonies
to convert Christians and Muslims to Hinduism. The events are called homecomings,
with organizers saying they were reconverting people whose ancestors had
been Hindu. Some of the Muslims and Christians, though, later said theyd
either been paid to convert or threatened with violence if they did not.
Then a series of churches were vandalized. And the rhetoric of groups like
the RSS and its allies like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, or World Hindu Council,
began to get more aggressive. On Monday, senior VHP leader Surendra Jain
said that attacks on churches would continue if Christians didnt stop
trying to convert people to Christianity. Will the Christians allow us
to make a Hanuman temple in the Vatican? he was quoted saying in the newspaper
Daily News & Analysis How do we even respond to this kind of language?
How can one stoop so low? asked the Rev. Dominic Emmanuel, spokesman for
the New Delhi Catholic Archdiocese.

Conversions are legal in India, but highly emotional.

Modi issued a brief statement saying that he was deeply concerned about
the incidents in Hisar, Haryana, and Nadia, West Bengal, and asked for
an immediate report from local officials. But it did little to assuage
the fears of most Christians. The PMs image as a man influenced by the
RSS is obvious to Christian groups, and that is very unfortunate, said
Dandge, the Bangalore pastor.

Akash Bashir, who sacrificed his life to prevent a large scale human
carnage at St. John's Catholic Church in Lahore, Pakistan, on March 15.
- ANSA

The heroic guard who on March 15 prevented a suicide bomber from entering
a crowded Catholic Church in Lahore, Pakistan, sacrificed his life to avoid
a large scale carnage in the place of worship. Two suicide bombers
exploded themselves near St. Johns Catholic Church and the Protestant
Christ ?Church, some 600 meters apart, in Lahores predominantly Christian
neighborhood of Youhannabad on ?Sunday as the faithful were gathered inside.?
In the attack on the two churches, claimed by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan
Jamaatul Ahrar (TTP-JA), 17 people died and more than 70 were wounded.

Akash Bashir, the heroic security guard at St. Johns Church was a past
pupil of the Don Bosco Technical Centre (DBTC) located in Youhannabad.
Akash Bashir was standing together with another security guard at the main
gate of the church, checking those who entered. The suicide bomber approached
the entrance and tried violently to get past the two young guards. When
Akash stopped him he noticed the explosives hidden under his jacket. He
grabbed hold of the attacker and the lower part of his body was blown off
in the explosion, but saved the lives of many other people. His identity
was confirmed on March 17 as details of the story of what happened gradually
became clear.

The funeral of Akash Bashir and others was held on March 17.
Akashs father said that his 19-year old son had always aspired to be a
great man. His mother once asked him to stop standing at the churchs
gate. He replied that he wanted to make people safer and did not care for
his own life, the elder Bashir said. He said that Akash and his sacrifice
should be remembered.

Meanwhile the climate of violence and insecurity in the city has not
lessened. The Salesian centre will remain closed until security can be
guaranteed. Today some young people cannot even return to their homes,
because of continuing unrest and violence in the streets. "As a Christian
minority there are times when our only hope is in God and His Mother, Mary"
the Salesians of Don Bosco in Lahore said. Two other students of
the Salesian school were injured as they passed in front of the Catholic
Church. We regard these two guards as heroes who gave their lives
to prevent a worse massacre," the local Salesians said. "What happened
remains for all of us involved in education in our Christian schools in
Pakistan a warning that sooner or later we could easily be the new victims
of such barbarity ... from Peshawar to Youhannabad, they said.
(Source: ANS)

The blood of St. Gennaro liquefies in Francis presence

St. Gennaros relic miraculously turned to liquid in Naples Cathedral.
This usually only happens on the feast of the saint on 19 September. Sepe
said St. Gennaro loves the Pope, the blood has already liquefied by half."
But the whole relic eventually turned to liquid

Giacomo Galeazzi in naples
This is the first time it happened. San Gennaros blood had never liquefied
during a papal visit to Naples before. None of the visits paid by Pius
IX, John Paul II or Benedict XVI provoked the phenomenon. But the miracle
was witnessed this afternoon, after Francis heartfelt address to faithful
and clergy.

The Pope had taken the vial with the blood of St. Gennaro - displayed
on the altar
03/21/2015
This is the first time it happened. San Gennaros blood had never liquefied
during a papal visit to Naples before. None of the visits paid by Pius
IX, John Paul II or Benedict XVI provoked the phenomenon. But the miracle
was witnessed this afternoon, after Francis heartfelt address to faithful
and clergy. The Pope had taken the vial with the blood of St. Gennaro
- displayed on the altar - in his hands and kissed it. Cardinal Sepe said
over the microphone: It is the sign that St. Gennaro loves Pope Francis:
half of the blood turned to liquid. The pronouncement was followed by
a long applause from faithful. The Pope then replied: If only half of
it liquefied that means we still have work to do; we have to do better.
We have only half of the saints love. But the blood continued to liquefy
until the whole relic had turned to liquid, with many faithful crying out
as they witnessed this.

Prior to this, the Pope had set aside his written speech and continued
off the cuff, describing some personal experiences he had had and encouraging
faithful to worship and love the Church (you cannot love Jesus without
loving his Church) and show apostolic zeal (The Church exists in order
to bring Jesus to people, he stressed). We need to start from Jesus and
Mary, the Pope urged, before going on to condemn wheeling and dealing in
the Church, the terrorism of gossip and the attachment to money displayed
by some priests and religious. Wheeling and dealing in the Church is
an ugly thing.

Pope Francis set aside his prepared speech and delivered a long address
off the cuff at his meeting with priests, nuns and religious in Naples
Cathedral. He listed a series of testimonies and counter-testimonies
which the consecrated can give Gods people, including the spirit of poverty.
The Pope told the story of a nun who was attached to money. When there
is wheeling and dealing in the Church this is an ugly thing, he said.
I remember a great nun, a good woman, a great bursar who was good at her
job but was too attached to money. She would subconsciously pick people
according to how much money they had: I like him more, hes very well
off. She was a bursar at an important college, she had important structures
built. She was a great woman but you could see this in her. And the final
humiliation this woman faced was public: she was around 70 years old and
she was in the teachers lounge having a coffee when she fainted and fell.
People tried slapping her to get her return to consciousness but
she wouldnt. So one of the female teachers said put a 100 pesos note on
her and lets see if she reacts. The poor woman was dead but this was the
last thing that was said when no one was sure if she was alive or not:
an ugly testimony.

When a priest is greedy and gets involved in business, how many
scandals have been witnessed int he Church and how much lack of freedom
just because of money! the Pope continued. H eexplained the cautiousness
shown by some clerics when they find themselves int he midst of moneyed
people: I should give this person a piece of my mind but since he or she
is an great benefactor and great benefactors lead the lives they want,
it is not my place to start preaching to them. A priest can have his
savings, but that is not where his heart should be otherwise you start
to differentiate between people when theres money involved and so I ask
you to examine your conscience: how is my life of poverty going? Even in
the small things, whether one is a cleric or not.

Pope Francis also condemned worldliness and excess, for example spending
too much time in front of television. In the diocese where I served before
there was a nuns college. They were good nuns but the house in which they
lived, the apartment they had was a bit old and needed work done to it.
So they had work done on it, too much work in fact, it became a luxury
house. They put televisions in every room. And when there was a soap opera
on there wasnt a nun in sight at the college! These are the things
that lead us to a worldly spirit, the Pope underlined. And this brings
me onto the other point I wanted to make. Worldliness is dangerous, living
a worldly life, living in a spiit of worldliness that Jesus did not want.

In response to a question put to him by a prelate on the scarcity of
vocations, the Pope said: But bearing witness to the faith attracts vocations.
I want to be like that priest, I want to be like that nun. A comfortable
and worldly life does not help us. The Pope then spoke about
the joy of testimony. If a cleric is sad then somethings not quite right.
They should go to a friend or a good spiritual councillor. If Jesus isn't
center of your life, postpone ordination, Francis said addressing candidates
to the priesthood. Francis also warned religious against the terrorism
of gossip because whoever gossips is a terrorist who throws a bomb and
destroys, while he or she keeps a safe distance. At least if that person
was suicide bomber  Gossip destroys. You talk about differences face
to face, he added.

March 16, 2015 - Highlights from the Pope's recent interview
This March 13, on the second anniversary of the Pope's election, the
Vatican published an interview granted by Pope Francis to Valentina Alazraki,
Televisa's Vatican correspondent. The Pope responded at length to questions
on various topics: drug trafficking, migration, a possible visit to Mexico
in 2016, the recent disappearance of a group of Mexican students, the misunderstanding
of the phrase "Mexicanization" of Argentina, his devotion to Our Lady of
Guadalupe, his intuition that his pontificate will only last a few years,
and the reform of the Curia, among other things.

The interview was recorded by the Vatican Television Center and Vatican
Radio, which published its complete transcript.

Here are the highlights:

1. Pope Francis responded to the reactions unleashed by the private
email he sent to a friend, where he said that the bishops should try to
avoid the "Mexicanization" of Argentina.

He said,"Clearly, this is a 'technical' term, if I may use that expression.
It has nothing to do with Mexico's dignity. When we use the term 'Balkanization,'
neither the Serbs, nor the Macedonians, nor the Croats get angry. And we
say that something is 'Balkanized' and it is used technically, and the
mass media have used it many times, haven't they?"
He recognized that his comment stirred up the dust and said that, according
to statistics that he had consulted, 90% of Mexicans were not offended
by the expression. "Which makes me happy. It would have been very painful
for me if it had been interpreted that way. The government itself, after
having asked, accepted my explanations. These, which are the real ones.
And everything is in peace. In other words, that misunderstanding
didn't close the doors of Mexico to me. I will go to Mexico."

2. The devil hasn't forgiven Mexico for the Virgin Mary's apparition

"This is not the first difficult moment that Mexico has passed through.
In other words, it is connected with holiness, don't you think? That is,
Mexico went through times of religious persecution, which led to martyrs.
I think that the devil punishes Mexico with a lot of problems. Because
of this: I think the devil has not forgiven Mexico, for Mary having shown
her Son there. That's my interpretation. In other words, Mexico is privileged
by martyrdom, because it has recognized and defended its Mother.
"And you know this well yourself. You will find some Mexicans who are
Catholics, some who are not Catholics, some who are atheists, but they
are all 'Guadalupanos,' [devoted to Our Lady of Guadalupe- translator's
note]. That is to say, they all feel that they are her children. Sons and
daughters of the one who brought the Savior who destroyed the devil.
That is to say, the holiness connection is there too. I believe that the
devil is making Mexico pay, don't you? And that is the reason for all these
things. You can see that throughout history there have always appeared
hot spots of grave conflict, right?"

3. Promise to make a proper visit to Mexico

Alazraki asked him why he is not going to Mexico this year, despite
visiting Philadelphia in the USA. The Pope responded that he thought of
doing it by entering the USA crossing the Mexican border. "But, if I went
to Ciudad Juárez, for example, and entered from there, it would
have caused a bit of an uproar: 'How is it possible that he goes there
and doesn't come to see Our Lady, our Mother!' Besides, I can't visit Mexico
piece by piece; I'd need a whole week to do it.

4. Devotion to the Virgin of Guadalupe

The conversation took place in Saint Martha Hall, in chairs right in
front of a large image of the Virgin of Guadalupe. In this way, the
Pope showed his great devotion to the "mestiza" Virgin. "She is the Mother
who brings the Gospel to us in Mexico. [...] She is an expectant Mother.
It shows that she is bearing a child. But, in what way does she show it?
How does she reveal herself, beyond the fact that she is pregnant? She
appears as a mestiza. That is a prophecy of our American mixture of ethnicities."

5. Mary and the mixture of ethnicities

He repeatedly emphasized the cultural and religious experience of the
mixture of ethnicities through the apparition. "That is why she goes beyond
the limits of Mexico, she goes far beyond it and is the unity of the American
people. She is the Mother. America isn't an orphan; it has a Mother, a
Mother who brings us Jesus."
"That is to say, our Salvation, which is Christ, comes through a woman,
and she wanted to show through her appearing with mixed ethnicity that
she brought Christ especially to Mexico. And she chooses to reveal herself
through a son of that culture. She doesn't choose a Spanish man, or a colonist,
or a beautiful woman; no, no. A simple, married, humble man. And so for
me she is a Mother. She is a mother of mixed ethnicity and, I dare to say,
something more. She is the beginning of something we don't talk about much
in America: she is the initiator of holiness. In other words, in the colonization
of America, in the conquest of America, there was a lot of sin."

The complete interview was published by Vatican Radio.
Here in Spanish Los primeros dos años de la Era Francisco
en entrevista a Televisa Vatican Radio

He left the seminary to practice Yoga and to follow
Hindu gurus until in prayer Jesus touched him!

Testimony of Fr Paresh Gujarat (Ahmedabad diocese)

I am a Gujarati, from Bombay. Though my fore-fathers hail from Gujarat,
we have settled down in Bombay since last two generations. We converted
to Catholicism since the last two generations only, as the church of Gujarat
is 114 years old..
I was born and brought up in Bombay. My daddy expired when I was in
9th std. Being the youngest of six brothers and sisters, I was showered
with a lot of love and care. I joined the Engineering College (Production
Engineering) soon after my 12th std. I was elected as the General Secretary
of the college. I was into blood donations and was also involved in other
social work in hospitals and other public centers. When once I visited
TATA hospital I met a little 11yr old girl suffering from leukemia. Her
parents were finding it difficult to get blood donors for her. In Bombay
there are several such families begging to the doctors for the life of
their babies. I decided to help this little girl. We had a big group of
blood donors. I also arranged for the treatment expense. Though we tried
our best to save her life she died in 6 months. This death had its effect
on me and my perspective about life changed. My dream was to become successful
person, go abroad and work but suddenly, I saw that nothing or no one can
stop prevent death, no matter how much money you have!
I started asking God 'why do you allow so much suffering? Why do you
allow people to cry?' I wanted to experience God if He really existed and
my search for God began.

I was just a routine church- goer. During those days I got my hand on
a philosophical book by Swami Vivekananda. I found it interesting. I read
all the volumes of the books by Swami Vivekananda. Somehow I felt that
we can never encounter God at home. One needs to renounce the world. Thus,
with little or no faith in Jesus, I went to Gujarat to become a priest.
I spent a year there but I was not happy. I left the place and retuned
back to Bombay.

Even though I tried to become a priest I couldn't experience God. As
soon as I left the seminary my brothers and sisters-in-law wanted me to
get married. I was not ready for marriage and so finally I reached a decision
to open a factory in Bombay. However even this did not give me any satisfaction
instead my desire to experience God grew stronger. Not knowing what to
do I started visiting famous Swamis and Gurus all over India. I visited
many Ashrams. I met preachers of different communities. Every Monday I
used to go to Shiv Temple, Tuesday - Friday I went to Kali and Durga devi
temple and Saturdays to Hanuman temple. I used to get up at 3:30 a.m ,
have a cold water dip, do kriya yoga etc. although I was a catholic I completely
stopped going to Church. Some of India's famous Swamis used to come to
my house and take me with them to their ashrams.I used to go with them
to the jungles and stay for 10-15 days with them.

Because of my yoga practices, I started getting some psychic gifts But
my Hindu guru's kept telling me that if I get stuck with the spiritual
gifts, then I will not be able to experience the 'giver of the gifts, i.e.
God. So I continued in my search for God. I was looking for a Guru who
would accept me as his disciple. A well known Hath-Yogi from Malad, Bombay
had told me several times that Jesus is my Guru and that I have to become
a priest. My mom began to get worried about me seeing me running after
so many gurus.

A 108 year old guru from a village called Zarap, near Sawantwadi [Maharashtra],
gave me a guru mantra (a chant) and asked me to recite and see its power.
I started reciting the mantra. I was very happy and recited that mantra
religiously. I had already spent two and a half years since I had left
my seminary and seeking God following the Hindu guru's. Nothing seemed
to be happening. Infact I was experiencing some sort of turmoil within
me.

On 7th of June, 1994 I was out for an evening walk and was passing through
my parish church (St. Teresa's Church) in Bandra. I saw the board 'Jesus
heals'. A force dragged me into the Church. I was not aware of the charismatic
movement at that time. When I entered I noticed that Fr. Joe Santiago from
Poona Diocese was conducting the prayer services. People were screaming
on the top of their voices shouting 'Alleluia' before the exposed Blessed
Sacrament. I found all this a bit funny. I found my self misplaced there
and was just waiting for this prayer service to get over so that I could
get out of all that madness.

At 9 pm, the priest asked all of us to stand up and pray so that the
Lord may touch us. I too got up casually looking all around with curiosity.
And lo... what happens....Suddenly I saw a ball of light on the altar.
The light entered into my heart and I fell down. I was embraced and engulfed
with that light. I instantly recognized the light. IT WAS JESUS. Jesus
was right in front of me. I could hear His voice saying "I am the Master
you are looking for. I have a plan for you to become a priest; go to Gujarat
and I have a plan for you there". I could experience the light for 10 minutes.
I could experience a power entering my body and another power leaving my
body. I was getting transformed. Like 'Saul was becoming Paul'.

After the prayers I found myself a changed person. I came home and for
the first time in my life I started reading Bible with devotion. I miraculously
came in touch with my college friend Ralph, who was into healing ministry.
I joined his prayer group and there I received the gift of tongues and
the gift of healing.
Having confirmed Gods call, I left my home once again to join priesthood.
I went to Gujarat and met the Bishop of Ahmedabad and he accepted me in
his diocese.

I was 28 years old when I joined. And today, I am 40, and have completed
4...years of my priesthood and I continue to serve our LORD in His vineyard.
Praise the Lord. Many are the wonders he has worked in my life thereafter
and continues to work everyday of my life. Today I am convinced beyond
any doubt that our Lord is the true God and also the only living God. Thank
you Jesus Praise you Jesus.

I would like to conclude my testimony by stating that if any of you
are searching for the one true living God then it stops at Jesus. I have
been through the arduous path and convinced myself beyond any doubt.

John 14:15 If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And
I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate (HOLY SPIRIT),
to be with you for ever.

After
surviving ISIS, Myriam thanks God and teaches the world a lesson on forgivenes

Watch Myriam
as she shares her story of being displaced from Qaraqoush, Iraq by #ISIS,
and forgives and sings a song of gratitude to God for His protection

10 Signs Christianity Is on the Rise

March 09, 2015

It may look different in the future, but that's a good thing.

Christianity is a dying relic of an ancient past. The Internet is killing
it. Science is killing it. Western sophistication is killing it. Right?

Wrong.

In many ways, Christianity is on the rise as never beforeworldwide,
and in America. Here are the ways we can tell:
1. Christianity is growing by leaps and bounds worldwide.

The research shows Christian numbers rising, not falling worldwide.
"Christianity should enjoy a worldwide boom in the coming decades, but
the vast majority of believers will be neither white nor European, nor
Euro-American, writes Philip Jenkins of Baylor University, author of The
Next Christendom.
In America, this will mean that as white descendants of Europeans fall
off a demographic cliff, they will be replaced by the growing Southern
Christian and Catholic populations.

2. Nominal Christianity is deadand thats a good thing.

Meanwhile, in America, research showing that Christian numbers
are tanking is a little misleading. What it really shows is a fall in the
number of people who call themselves Christians but have never darkened
the door of a Church. We no longer feel we have to dishonestly mark the
Christian box, and we now feel it's okay to be honest and mark the atheist
boxbut this shows health rather than weakness.
It is an interesting dynamic: In the West, the nominal Christianity
that was inherited unthinkingly is disappearing and in the East and South,
real Christianity is a rapidly growing grassroots movement. Books like
God's Century by Monica Duffy Toft of Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy
School of Government and God Is Back by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge
of The Economist are trying to figure out what that will mean.

3. The Church is promoting the sacraments.

But the nominal Catholic rate still causes problems. We know various
polls place Mass attendance at various small percentages. What we dont
know is the extent to which they merely show that nominal Catholics still
mark Catholic on polls.
Another thing we also know is that the Church is promoting the
first necessary step to increased Mass attendance: Confession. The Vaticans
24 hours for the Lord March 13-14 is doing this church-wide, seeing promotions
pay off in Great Britain, while events such as Chicagos Festival of Forgiveness
and Philadelphia's confession push are doing the same in America.

4. Eucharistic Adoration is on the rise.

A good measure of whether Catholics are more than nominal is Eucharistic
adoration. To spend time with Jesus Christ is the very definition of a
Christian, after all. Adoration is offered at 7,094 U.S. parishes as listed
by RealPresence.com. In 2005, that websites president, Mike Mortimer,
estimated that there were 715 perpetual adoration chapels in America. The
Vatican now estimates that there are 1,100 perpetual adoration chapels
in America.
The worldwide church is led by a man who prays a daily Eucharistic
hour and the Church in America is actively promoting Eucharistic adoration
through events like the Eucharistic Adoration Novena.

5. Catholic youth movements have never been stronger.

A movements future is only as strong as its next generation,
and so for Catholicism to have a future it has to have a youth movement.
Catholicism does. Our most recent World Youth Day attracted 3.7 millionone
of the 30-year events largest gatherings ever.
At home, we see a pro-life force largely led by young American
Catholics, which dwarfs almost every other activist movement. Tens of thousands
of Catholic young people descend on Washington each January for the March
for Life, and you can add to that the young people at the 115 smaller marches
for life throughout the United States and the nationwide life chain events
in October.

6. and the Catholic youth movements are linked to higher education.

When I went to college, people referred to the hardcore four
or thriving five Catholic colleges faithful to the magisterium. Now I
work at a college and we continually hear new stories of schools trying
to reclaim their Catholic identity in order to compete. Today, the National
Catholic Registers latest Catholic Identity Guide lists more than 30 schools
that are promoting the strength of their Catholic identity.
At the same time, new Catholic centers at state schools are trying
to make inroads in hostile environments that dismantle students faith:
The Seek 2015 conference of FOCUS (The Fellowship of Catholic University
Students) attracted nearly 10,000 college students this year.

7. New, young vocations.

Another phenomenon you cant help but notice in Catholic circles
is hidden from official numbers: The new young vocations. We see them at
Benedictine College all the timein our classrooms, in our Abbey, and among
our alumni. But because of the huge numbers of elderly priests and nuns,
the total numbers of priests and nuns keeps dropping in America.
Research does show that millennials are even more likely to
consider vocations than the generation before them, and anecdotal evidence
shows that there was a Benedict Effect before there was any Francis Effect
in vocations, and that priests under 35 represent a sign of hope in the
Church.

8. Strong, engaged Bishops.

Complaining about bishops is a pastime as old as the Church itself.
It can be done in a helpful way (see the letters of St. Paul in your New
Testament) and in an unhelpful way (as in the joke about the part of the
bishop-making ceremony where the candidates spine is removed).
But the 21st century has seen a huge change in the way American
bishops engage the world. It first became noticeable with the candidacy
of John Kerry, a radically pro-abortion politician whose nominal Catholicism
forced bishops to take a stand. Then came the rise of Obama and the HHS
mandatewhich every U.S. bishop denounced. Finally, new strong bishops
are emerging from what Thomas Peters calls the Benedict Bishop Bump.

9. A new interest in Scripture.

Many people predicted when the Da Vinci Code was popular that
the long-term effect of the novels crazy anti-Scriptural premise would
be to increase interest in Scripture. That paradoxical prediction has proven
true. In the wake of the Da Vinci Code, a new interest in Scripture can
be seen in popular books, television miniseries, and major Hollywood movies.

10. The witness of the martyrs.

Last but not least by a long shot is the witness of the martyrs.
The beautiful way Christians are showing their deep faith and love for
Jesus Christ, as I've said before, will grow the Church just as it did
in the former atheist communist bloc, and indeed as it did in the early
Church.
The bottom line is that if Christianity is true, then we can
expect it will continue to rise and not die. If it's not true, then it
will certainly dieand the sooner, the better. But since Jesus Christ really
did die and rise and leave us the sacraments, dont expect it to go away
any time soon.

Tom Hoopes is writer in residence at Benedictine College in Atchison,
Kansas.

Jesus Christ's childhood home 'discovered' by British
academic

3 March 2015. By Martin Bagot
Dr Ken Dark said that the humble first century home in Nazareth,
northern Israel, could have been where Mary and Joseph brought up the son
of God

A British archaeologist has identified what he believes could have been
the house where Jesus was raised. Dr Ken Dark said that the humble first
century home in Nazareth, northern Israel, could have been where Mary and
Joseph brought up the son of God.

The Reading University archaeologist said that an ancient text described
precisely how it was located between two tombs and below a church. Clerics
from the Crusader period and the Byzantine era also put the ruins in the
cellar of their churches, suggesting that it was of great significance
and needed to be protected. In an article Professor Dark said that there
was no good reason why the courtyard style house was not the boyhood
home of Jesus.

He has been researching the ruins since 2006 and published his findings
in Biblical Archaeological Review, a respected journal.
Is this Jesus' home?
Holy site: An exterior view of the house believed to be where Jesus
lived as a young boy

Should Dr Darks analysis be correct, it will solve a mystery which
has baffled Christians for centuries. They believe that Mary and Joseph
lived in Nazareth when the angel Gabriel revealed that Mary would give
birth to the son of God, a baby to be named Jesus. According to Dr Dark,
the house is located beneath the Sisters of Nazareth Convent which is across
the road from Church of Annunciation in Nazareth.

He describes it as having been cut out of a limestone hillside and having
a series of rooms and a stairway. One of the original doorways has survived,
as has part of the original chalk floor. Overall the design was typical
of early Roman settlements in the Galilee, Dr Dark says. The house was
first identified as a site of special significance in the 1880s after the
chance discovery of an ancient cistern at the convent, after which the
nuns ordered an excavation.

Jesuit priest Henri Senes carried out more work in 1936 and then Dr
Darks team followed up in 2006, discovering broken cooking pots, a spindle
whorl and limestone artifacts.

The limestone items suggest a Jewish family lived there as Jews believed
that limestone could not be impure. Dr Dark also found that subsequent
generations after the first century took great care to look after the site
In the article he wrote: Great efforts had been made to encompass the
remains of this building within the vaulted cellars of both the Byzantine
and Crusader churches, so that it was thereafter protected. Both the tombs
and the house were decorated with mosaics in the Byzantine period, suggesting
that they were of special importance, and possibly venerated.

The key piece of evidence linking the site to Jesus is pilgrim text
called De Locus Sanctis written in 670 AD by abbot Adomnàn of
Iona, the island off the West coast of Scotlan, It was supposedly based
on a pilgrimage made to Nazareth made by the Frankish bishop Arculf and
talks about a church where once there was the house in which the Lord
was nourished in his infancy.
Discovery:
The key piece of evidence linking the site to Jesus is pilgrim text called
De
Locus Sanctis

In the article Dr Dark says that the text describes two churches in
Nazareth, one of which was the Church of Annunciation. He writes: The
other stood nearby and was built near a vault that also contained a spring
and the remains of two tombs. Between these two tombs was the house in
which Jesus was raised. From this is derived the more recent name for the
church that Adomnàn described. The Sisters of Nazareth Convent
matches this because there is evidence of a large Byzantine church with
a spring and two tombs in its crypt, Dr Dark writes.

Rex Remains of a residential building from the time of Jesus was exposed
in the heart of Nazareth were discovered in an archaeological excavation
of the Israel Antiquities Authority near the Church of the Annunciation.
The house he believes was Jesus boyhood home stands in between the two
tombs which also matches with Adomnàns account. Dr Dark, a specialist
in first century and Christian archaeology, writes: Was this the house
where Jesus grew up? It is impossible to say on archaeological grounds.
On the other hand, there is no good archaeological reason why such an
identification should be discounted.

The last attempt to identify the house where Jesus grew up was in 2009
when archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority found another
1st century home they believed had been occupied by a Jewish family. However
they were only able to say that Jesus may have lived near to the site as
they did not have the link to the ancient texts that Professor Dark found.

Yoga without ethics: just empty posturing?

Can the fitness fad live up to its traditional roots?

Zac Alstin | 5 March 2015
Bikram
Choudhury teaches Yoga class

Bikram Choudhury, founder of the popular Bikram Yoga, is currently
facing six civil lawsuits from female former-students alleging rape
or sexual assault. Bikram Yoga is famous for its 90 minute classes
carried out in 41 °C (105 °F) heat at 40% humidity. First
introduced in the 1970s, Bikram Yoga has made its namesake a wealthy man
with a net worth reportedly in the billions. With several dozen Rolls-Royces
and Bentleys, an 8,000 square foot Beverley Hills mansion, and devoted
students spending thousands of dollars just to train with their hero for
a week: the swearing, name-dropping, speedo-wearing guru hardly fits the
popular image of what a master Yogi should be.

Yet Yoga in its many, varied forms has become so popular in the West
that  along with meditation  it has even made its way into corporate
environments, promoting physical and mental health in the workplace.
But the mainstream adoption of these ancient religious practices is not
without its critics. Buddhist psychotherapist Dr Miles Neale coined the
terms McMindfulness and Frozen Yoga to describe the denaturing and secularisation
of these practices, stripped of their important ethical content for the
sake of mainstream palatability:

What we see in America today, in both the yoga boom and mindfulness
fad, is an overemphasis on training in meditation (samadhi) to the exclusion
of the trainings in wisdom (prajna) and ethics (shila)...
American culture is fascinated by quick fixes, glamorous fads and celebrity
teachers: yoga and mindfulness are no exception to this trend. Whats next?
Drive-through yoga? Meditation on demand? We are experiencing a feeding
frenzy of spiritual practices that provide immediate nutrition but no long-term
sustenance.

Even the overtly irreligious expressions of the Bikram Yoga founder
cant take the spiritual shine off the mysterious Indian practice.
According to Choudhury
Religion is the biggest piece of **** created in all time!", yet civil
lawsuits
describe:

a cult-like atmosphere where the charismatic Mr Choudhury would tell
young women training to be instructors they had been "touched by God" before
forcing himself upon them.

In fact what most Westerners know as Yoga is more accurately described
simply as asanas or postures. Traditional Yoga (from Sanskrit yoga, think
yoke) is a spiritual discipline aimed at union with the divine.
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, compiled around 400 AD, include eight aspects
or limbs of this spiritual discipline:

Its hard to imagine Yoga being quite so popular in the West if the
first two limbs were emphasised over and above the promise of a taught
and toned Yoga body with intimations of feel-good meditative bliss. Likewise,
its hard to imagine Choudhury having as much cachet in a society where
ethics extends Yogic discipline beyond the merely physical.

But in our self-consciously secular environment its hard to give credence
to the idea that mysterious-looking postures might be less effective than
onerous moral injunctions, let alone religious observances. Without
a trace of irony, many Westerners would rather twist themselves into the
most difficult and unlikely contortions if only to avoid the conclusion
that self-denial, moral rectitude, and religious observance might be the
genuine path to a better way of life.

Raising saints, not rabbits

Moving beyond mere biology is essential to the pope's teachings on
the family.Posted on February 17, 2015,

By Fr William Grimm - Tokyo:
When Pope Francis commented that people should not reproduce "like
rabbits," some who read his comment were upset that he seemed to be attacking
large families even though he was raised in one himself.
That is probably one reason that lately he has extolled the wonders
of large families and criticized the "selfishness" of some who choose to
be childless.
What might seem to be mutually contradictory positions are accurate,
in fact, when viewed in a larger context because, ultimately, family size
is not a matter of arithmetic. Celibates who "have no children to speak
of" are too often prone to view human reproduction in ways that seem
more like animal husbandry than a sharing of human life.

Insisting that every act of coitus must be open to the breeding of children
while ignoring the fact that human reproduction entails much, much more
than simply the production of fetuses smacks more of the barnyard than
of human
society. Human reproduction is not simply biology. Giving birth is
the beginning of a process that takes years, even decades. Children must
be fed, housed, socialized and educated. They must have access to an environment
in which their health and safety are protected. They must be equipped to
one day take their places as members of society, and even as parents themselves.
In short, they must be enabled to exercise their dignity as children of
God.

There is no ideal size for a family that will enable children born into
it to achieve that dignity. Size is not so important as quality. Much depends
upon what counts as a dignified life in particular societies and circumstances.
When food and access to medical care are severely limited, giving birth
to more children than can be supported is, in many cases, simply condemning
babies to a short life of suffering. Those who survive are often handicappe
intellectually and physically by deprivation in infancy and childhood.

Even in situations where biological life is not threatened, there are
still the demands of social life. If, for example, a family has too many
children to provide them with an adequate education, then, though they
may manage to stay alive, their quality of life compared to the opportunities
their society offers and the expectations it will place upon them will
be compromised. However, the biggest challenges that parents and guardians
face are not material.

Raising children from bawling infancy through exhausting childhood and
frustrating adolescence to the point where they have children of their
own requires the sacrifice of parents' or guardians' time, energy, interests
and personal comfort until the day they can say, as my mother once did,
"Grandchildren are a mother's best revenge." Until then, there are intellectual,
emotional, physical, psychological and spiritual demands involved in child
rearing. The rewards of being a parent or guardian come precisely in responding
to those demands.

The limits of what a family can manage differ from case to case. Some
families are joyfully, healthily large. Others are joyfully, healthily
small. Caring for a child with special physical, emotional or psychological
needs may compromise the care provided to his or her siblings. In such
cases, the sacrifices the entire family makes can be a source of growth
in love and virtue for all. For other families, though, responding to the
needs of one child requires limiting the number of others. But even when
no child in the family has what are generally called "special needs," the
usual needs of children can exhaust the limits of their parents' or guardians'
or siblings' ability to provide for them. In many situations, families
can rely on relatives and friends or organizations or governments for assistance,
but that is not always the case.

Pope Paul VI in his encyclical Humanae Vitae (called by the irreverent
"Paul's Epistle to the Fallopians") proscribes certain methods of birth
control, but also recognizes that circumstances may make such control necessary.
"With regard to physical, economic, psychological and social conditions,
responsible parenthood is exercised by those who prudently and generously
decide to have more children, and by those who, for serious reasons and
with due respect to moral precepts, decide not to have additional children
for either a certain or an indefinite period of time."

I once heard a speaker ask, "If you die tonight, will your children
go to heaven?" That is the glory and responsibility of being a Christian
parent. We must not reproduce like rabbits, but like men and women who
will raise up saints. To do that requires the humility to know our limitations,
the intelligence to not attempt more than we can handle, and the faith
to know that God will work with us in fulfilling our humbly intelligent
choices.

Maryknoll Fr William Grimm is publisher of ucanews.com, based in Tokyo.

Holy Land tour planned for priests, Religious

A $2,500 fee includes expenses during the pilgrimage, as well as
return airfare from the airports of Bangalore, Cochin, Delhi, and Mumbai
in India.February 11, 2015
Plans are underway to have a 20-day Holy Land pilgrimage for Indian
priests and Religious aiming to help them renew lives and become more effective
in their ministry. The Franciscans of the Holy Land and the Salesian Pontifical
University of Jerusalem are jointly organizing the pilgrimage titled: "Hearts
Aflame: walking with Jesus in his land." It is scheduled for April 21&ndash;May
10. "The highlights of the program are a thorough orientation by Biblical
experts, a detailed pilgrimage in the footprints of the disciples to the
nooks and corners of Holy Land and a encountering a spiritual retreat experience,"
Fr. Tojy Jose, OFM, one of the organizers.

Fr. Jose told Catholic News Agency that the pilgrimage is meant to help
priests retreat into a "spiritual Emmaus." A $2,500 fee includes expenses
during the pilgrimage, as well as return airfare from the airports of Bangalore,
Cochin, Delhi, and Mumbai in India. Fr. Jose emphasized the program is
meant to integrate study and prayer, with time alloted for personal study,
reflection, and prayer.

Cardinal George Alencherry, Syro-Malabar Major Archbishop of Ernakulam-Angamaly,
endorsed the pilgrimage, calling it "a beautiful program" and asking that
"may many be attracted by this project and let all the organizers succeed
in executing this project." Fr. Jose explained that seminars will be held
in English by eminent scholars such as Fr. David Neuhaus, SJ; Fr. Lionel
Goh, OFM; Fr. Piotr Zelazko; Fr. Pier Giorgio Gianazza, SDB.

Topics discussed will include biblical history and geography, Jewish
culture and politics, early Christian history, priestly renewal, and spirituality
of the Holy Land. Meetings with Patriarch Fouad Twal of Jerusalem and with
the Franciscan Custos of the Holy Land are also scheduled. A retreat on
discipleship will be held at the site of the Visitation and the birthplace
of St. John the Baptist.

The Archbishop of Delhi has said the Indian government failed to deliver
on its promises following the victory of an anti-corruption party in the
state elections. Speaking to AsiaNews, Archbishop Anil Joseph Thomas Couto
claimed the election had been marred by anti-Catholic violence after churches
were vandalised and a peaceful protest was broken up by heavy-handed police.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which translates as the common man, won 67
of the 70 assembly seats in the Delhi state elections on Tuesday. Its leader,
Arvind Kejriwal, will be the new chief minister of Delhi. The Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP), the party of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was
left with just three seats.

Archbishop Couto said: The result is a vote for change. Even after
eight months, the Modi government has failed to act well, nor has it fulfilled
its promises. The people of Delhi are disappointed and thats why they
wanted to give Arvind Kejriwal a chance as the new chief minister. Since
December, five different churches in the Indian capital territory have
been vandalised. Last week, the Church of St Alphonsa was broken into and
sacred hosts were scattered on the altar and the floor.

A peaceful protest against the attacks on churches was broken up by
police last week. AsiaNews reported that Delhi police beat and detained
dozens of priests, nuns and laypeople, including women and children, during
the silent march outside the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart.

Archbishop Couto said: These elections were negatively affected by
the attacks on churches. Five attacks on five different churches and the
BJP, which was in power, stood by in silence. Whats worse, it said that
what happened was normal, that in many other places similar incidents were
happening.

The result constitutes a major setback to the BJP and Mr Modi, who has
enjoyed widespread public support since winning the 2014 general election.
Archbishop Couto said: The people of Delhi voted against the BJP and its
attempt to polarise the voters in the name of religion. The result of
these elections is a message to the Prime Minister: he should think seriously
about his behaviour.

In a separate incident, Indias Catholic bishops protested last week
against a government decision to deny visas to two Vatican officials. Archbishop
Arthur Roche, former Bishop of Leeds and now secretary at the Congregation
for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, and Archbishop
Portase Rugambwa, president of the Pontifical Mission Societies, were due
to address a conference of Catholic bishops in Bangalore on the subject
of Life and Liturgy but had to cancel their trip at the last minute.

7,000 Christians faced threats in 2014, reports Catholic
body

Madhya Pradesh (23) and Chhattisgarh (19), both BJP-ruled states,
along with Congress-ruled Karnataka (14) account for nearly half of all
incidents across India.Posted on February 10, 2015,
Mumbai:
The Mumbai-based Catholic Secular Forum (CSF) says it has documented
120 attacks on Christians and their institutions across India in 2014,
with over 7,000 Christians facing threats. The Hindustan Times said the
CSF report, made available to the newspaper, lists five murders across
India in little over a year.

Madhya Pradesh (23) and Chhattisgarh (19), both BJP-ruled states, along
with Congress-ruled Karnataka (14) account for nearly half of all incidents
across India. Between December 2013 and December 2014, 7,000 Christians
faced threats, violence and displacement. These included 1,600 women and
500 children. 300 members of the clergy and community leadership were also
targeted during this period. The report also expresses concern over certain
moves of the Union government such as making Christmas good governance
day and foreign minister Sushma Swarajs call to make Bhagwad Gita the
national book of India.

Joseph Dias, general secretary of CSF, told HT that the details of the
report had been shared with human rights groups across the world. The CSFs
annual reports and their global reach offer some clues into the circumstances
that led President Barack Obama to call for greater religious tolerance
in India.

The CSFs 2013 report, which counted 4,000 offences against Christians
in India, was used by Indian Christian groups in California to lobby for
minority protection as one of the terms of reference for India-US talks.
In a February 2013 memorandum, these groups sought a house resolution
that would make human rights and justice for religious minorities a priority
in US-India talks. Former judge of Bombay and Karnataka high courts Michael
Saldanha told HT, Representatives of countries such as France, UK, Australia,
Italy as well as the Vatican have approached us for information. These
countries have then proceeded to take these matters up with the Indian
government.

Dachau is the largest cemetery of Catholic priests
in the world. The concentration camp for priests

2015-02-02 LOsservatore Romano
Between 1938 and 1945 2,579 Catholic priests, seminarians and monks,
together with 141 Protestant and Orthodox priests were deported to Dachau.
And 1,034 died in the camp, recalls Guillaume Zeller, the author of the
book La Baraque des prêtres, Dachau, 1938-1945 (Paris, Éditions
Tallandier, 2015, 384 pages, 21.90 euros). Interviewed by Guillaume Perrault
of Le Figaro, the author explains that the Vatican was unable to stop them
from being deported but succeeded in having them sent to Dachau, even
though they were from all over Europe: Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia,
Poland, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, France and Italy.

Many German priests were arrested for having opposed Hitlers euthanasia
programme. While, according the reports sent by Reihard Heydrich, others,
mostly Slavic priests were arrested by Einsatzgruppen in Poland in 1940,
as they were considered to be dangerous elite figures. The priests in France
were targeted instead for having actively participated in the Resistance.
These men of the Church, continues Zeller, experienced the same suffering
as their lay prison mates, however they were able to maintain incredible
dignity, even though the Nazi soldiers continuously sought to brutalize
and humiliate those interned in the camp.

For as much as Primo Levi was an atheist, he recognized the admirable
moral and intellectual stature of the rabbis deported to Auschwitz. Even
if the circumstances were different, the author continues, the same could
be said of the priests in Dachau.

Locked in the camps, the priests forced themselves to maintain and strengthen
their faith, hope and charity. Prayer, sacraments and support to the sick
and dying, secret theology lessons and pastoral formation, faithfulness
to the Church hierarchy allowed them to safeguard their humanity, recalling
also the Church persecutions in the centuries before. One of the Nazi strategies
was to turn the detainees against each other, but the majority of priests
did not fall into this trap. Rather there were many stories of heroism
and holiness. During the winter of 1944 and 1945, the prisoners were wiped
out by a typhus epidemic. While the SS soldiers and kaps would not enter
the infected barracks, dozens of priests voluntarily entering, knowing
full well of the risks they were running by tending to and consoling the
dying. Many died doing this.

The book also includes the story of the German seminarian Karl Leisner
whose clandestine ordination in articulo mortis was held in a building
used as chapel. Bishop Gabriel Piguet of Clermont-Ferrand, France, who
performed the ordination, was a maréchaliste or a supporter of Marshal
Pétain, head of the Pro-German Vichy regime from 1940 to 1944. Piguet
was deported to Dachau for hiding Jews and Yad Vashem has given him the
title, Righteous Among the Nations.

During the pontificates of John Paul II, Benedict XVI and now Pope Francis,
56 religious who died in the concentration camps have been beatified,
after evidence emerged of their natural or Christian virtues of of an exemplary
or heroic nature. And the Dachau camp remains the largest cemetery of Catholic
priests in the world. (Silvia Guidi)

SAUDI ARABIA - A forest of crosses and names of martyrs
in the desert of Saudi ArabiaA Franco-Saudi archaeological team is responsible for the discovery.
Prof Frédéric Imbert dated the graffiti to 470-475, a time
when anti-Christian persecution began, culminating under the usurper Yusuf.
Even the Qur'an refers to it indirectly. The findings show how far Christianity
had spread at the time, until the arrival of Islam.

Beirut (AsiaNews/Agencies) - A forest of crosses engraved in the rocks
of the desert of Saudi Arabia is a sign of the presence of a vibrant Christian
community around the fifth century AD.

Unearthed by a Saudi-French archaeological team, the graffiti include
inscriptions with a number of biblical and Christian names, perhaps those
of martyrs killed during a wave of persecution in the fifth century.

L'Orient-Le Jour reported that Prof Frédéric Imbert, a
professor at the University of Aix-Marseille and a member of the team,
presented his findings at a conference at the American University of Beirut
on the rock engravings of Jabal Kawkab ("Star Mountain"), in Najran, southern
Saudi Arabia. The area is called Bi'r Hima or Abar Hima, names "that refer
to places with wells known since ancient times."

According to Imbert, an epigrapher, the area is located on the route
"that connected Yemen to Najran" where caravans could be resupplied in
water. Inscriptions were found with crosses, scattered over a one-square
kilometre. Some inscriptions appear to be in a local version of Aramaic,
a pre-Islamic form of Arabic, Nabataean-Arabic to be more precise. The
inscriptions have been dated to the reign of Shurihbil Yakkuf, who controlled
southern Arabia in 470-475. The persecution of Christians appears to have
started under his rule.

It is interesting to note that the names Marthad and Rabi were found
inscribed on the crosses. Both are on the list of martyrs of Najran, in
the so-called Book of Himyarites. In order to understand crosses and rock
inscriptions, it is necessary to know that back in the 3rd century AD,
southern Arabia was ruled by the ?imyarite dynasty, which lasted for about
150 years. In order to maintain its neutrality between the two great powers
of the time, the Byzantine and Persian empires, its kings chose Judaism
as their religion. However, Christianity began to spread in Arabia in the
fourth century. By "the sixth century, it reached the Gulf region, Najran
and the Yemen coast".

The missionary activities of Christians from Iran's Sassanid Empire
and Monophysite Christians from Syria hostile to the Council of Chalcedon
(on Christ's dual nature) favoured the spread of Christianity. Two Syriac
bishops, probably from what is now Iraq, were consecrated in 485 and 519.
Later, Yusuf (Dhu Nuwas) seized power in the Kingdom of ?imyar, ordering
the massacre of Christians in Najran, an event reported in several Christian
chronicles, with a reference even in the Qur'an, in Shura Al-Bur?j (The
Celestial Stations).
When Christian survivors sent an appeal to Khaleb, King of Ethiopia,
he organised a military expedition to rescue the persecuted. Yusuf's army
was defeated and the usurper himself was killed. A Christian kingdom was
established in Arabia, as an Ethiopian protectorate, until it was conquered
by Islam. For Frédéric Imbert, the crosses and the inscriptions
are "the oldest book of the Arabs," written "on desert stones," a "page
of Arab and Christian history".

In a visit to India, now governed by a Hindu nationalist party, President
Barack Obama issued a call for greater respect for religious freedom. We
remember the wisdom of Gandhiji, who said, For me, the different religions
are beautiful flowers from the same garden, or they are branches of the
same majestic tree, said Obama. Branches of the same majestic tree.

He added: Our freedom of religion is written into our founding documents.
Its part of Americas very first amendment. Your Article 25 says that
all people are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right
freely to profess, practice and propagate religion. In both our countries
-- in all countries -- upholding this fundamental freedom is the responsibility
of government, but it's also the responsibility of every person.

In our lives, Michelle and I have been strengthened by our Christian
faith. But there have been times where my faith has been questioned --
by people who dont know me -- or theyve said that I adhere to a different
religion, as if that were somehow a bad thing. Around the world, weve
seen intolerance and violence and terror perpetrated by those who profess
to be standing up for their faith, but, in fact, are betraying it. No society
is immune from the darkest impulses of man. And too often religion has
been used to tap into those darker impulses as opposed to the light of
God. every person has the right to practice their faith how they choose,
or to practice no faith at all, and to do so free of persecution and fear
and discrimination. (Applause.)

The peace we seek in the world begins in human hearts. And it finds
its glorious expression when we look beyond any differences in religion
or tribe, and rejoice in the beauty of every soul. And nowhere is that
more important than India. Nowhere is it going to be more necessary for
that foundational value to be upheld. India will succeed so long as it
is not splintered along the lines of religious faith -- so long as it's
not splintered along any lines -- and is unified as one nation.

Bishops ask Modi to urgently intervene to save secular
India

The Christians of this country need assurance from the Government
that we are protected and secure and safe in our motherland.January 22, 2015, 8:53 AM
Cardinal
Cleemis opens the consultation with a prayer

Officials of the Indian bishops in a special consultation have asked
Indian Prime Minister Narendara Modi to urgently intervene and stop activities
that challenge nation's secular nature. They urged Modi "to urgently intervene
and take appropriate action to stop incidents that pose big threat to the
unity of this secular nation," said a press release from Indian Catholic
Bishops' Conference.

Cardinal Baselios Cleemis Catholicos, president of the conference, presided
over the special consultation on Monday in New Delhi. Cardinals Oswald
Gracias, Telesphore Toppo and George Alencherry also attended it along
with CBCI Office-Bearers, representatives of Conference of Religious, laity
youth and women.

The unfortunate incidents that happened in the past few months in various
parts of our country have hurt the sentiments of the Christian community,
said the press release referring to several cases of attacks against Christians
and churches in India. Such events have "shaken the faith in the secular
fabric of our nation. The shocking incidents that have taken place against
Churches, clergy and laity in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar
Pradesh and Delhi have caused great concern for the Christian community,"
it said.

The recent controversies in the name of religious reconversions portray
a negative image about India. Communal polarization and the bid to homogenize
India are posing threat to all minorities  women, dalits, and all linguistic,
cultural and religious minorities, it said. The reconversion programs of
Hindu hardline organizations called Ghar Wapsi programmes, the saffranisation
of education and culture, and the demands for a Hindu Rashtra are challenging
to the secular ethos of our beloved country.

"The Christians of this country need assurance from the Government that
we are protected and secure and safe in our motherland. We express our
strong concern on the aforementioned issues," said the press release signed
by Conference's Deputy Secretary General Fr. Joseph Chinnayyan. "Putting
an end to such dangerous tendencies is inevitable for the growth and progress
of our great nation," said asserting Christian recommitment "for the progress
and development of our nation."

January 21, 2015
New Delhi:
At least five Christians, including an 11-year-old child, were killed
and around 7,000 people experienced persecution during 2014, according
to a new report that tracks persecution against Christians in India. The
Christian Persecution Report, released this week by the Mumbai-based Catholic
Secular Forum (CSF), states that about 300 clergymen and Christian leaders
were targeted in incidents of violence around the country last year.

The reports authors are critical of what they see as a swing toward
conservatism and fundamentalism in India, a Hindu-majority country that
is nevertheless wildly diverse. Some right-wing forces have become active
since the pro-Hindu Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) took over the reins of
the country, Joseph Dias, CSFs general secretary, told ucanews.com.

The report claims that roughly 273,000 minorities had been re-converted
to Hinduism in one part of northern Indias massive Uttar Pradesh state.
In October, Hindu fundamentalists attacked twelve Christian villagers in
central Indias Chhattisgarh state. Earlier in the year, 50 villages in
the same district passed resolutions outlawing non-Hindu religious ceremonies.
These alarming problems have led the reports authors to label Chhattisgarh
as Indias worst place to live as a Christian. Such incidents prove that
the right-wing forces in the country want to make India a Hindutva hub,
and there is a hate campaign going on against the minorities in the country,
CSF chairman Michael Saldanha told ucanews.com.

Saldanha said the government must ensure that Christians in India are
safe from attacks and persecution. Instead, the report says, persecution
often goes unrecorded because victims are too afraid to complain. Samuel
Jaykumar of the National Council of Churches in India said the governments
lethargy in investigating persecution claims will see the problem persist.
Incidents of persecution coming to light every now and then from across
the country are very disturbing but we have to face the reality that this
trend is going to continue due to the governments inaction against the
attackers, he told ucanews.com. Christians in the country have a sense
of fear since the BJP government took over. We are not panicked but worried.?

The CSF report appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take strong
action against fundamentalism and to stop acts of persecution against the
Christian community. However, Modi is seen by many religious minorities
as a Hindu nationalist who has stayed silent on the issue since coming
to office last year. For example, church leaders have pointed a finger
at Hindu fundamentalists for a string of recent attacks on churches in
Delhi, including last months torching of Saint Sebastian's Church, which
caused significant damage. But Modi has not spoken out about the issue,
despite appeals from Christian groups.

However, Hindu groups at the time said it was unfair to blame them for
specific attacks, calling them small and isolated incidents. We do not
endorse any act of vandalism and it will not be fair to put blame on organizations
or individuals if some individuals have been found involved in some incidents,
Ravinder Kapur, a BJP leader, told ucanews.com.

Second Priest from Zeliang community ordained in Poilwa
Village - North Eastern India

Attendees of the ordination programme for the second priest
from Poilwa village and the Zeliang community.KOHIMA, JANUARY 4 (MExN): Reverend Deacon Peuhausuiding Peter, MSFS,
the second priest from Poilwa village and Zeliang tribe was ordained on
January 4 by Most Rev. Dr. James Thoppil, Bishop of Kohima. You are Gods
Field, Gods building (1Cor.3:9) is Fr. Peters priestly motto.

A press note informed that Deacon Peter was escorted to the venue of
the Ordination by the villagers humming and singing the traditional tunes
and firing of guns. Rev. Fr. Joseph MSFS, the first priest from the village
and the tribe anchored the program while Rev. Fr. Kusam, the Parish Priest,
accorded the words of welcome to the congregation, invited guests and dignitaries.

The bishop in his homily clearly enunciated the role of the priest as
that of lifting Jesus so that Jesus may draw all people to Himself and
give them eternal life. The bishop while thanking the family and village
for offering their son to the service of God and the Church urged the people
to support Fr. Peter though their constant prayers.

Fr. Peuhausuiding Peter MSFS is the 5th son of Lt. Heurangswang Hillary
and Peugwapoilie of Poilwa village. He completed his schooling at All Saints
Hr. Sec. School, Peren and did his Hr. Sec. School at SFS, Medziphema.
He finished his Novitiate at Chabua, Assam and his Philosophical and Graduation
at Suvidya College, Bangalore. He completed his Theological studies at
Oriens Theological College, Shillong. He was ordained as deacon by His
Grace Dominic Jala, Archbishop of Shillong.

The newly ordained priest gave his first priestly blessing to the people
after the Holy Mass and thanked everyone present for this great event in
his life.

Catholic population up 15 million worldwide

Woman
praying at Catholic church in Myanmar. - AFP

(Vatican Radio- 31.12.2014) The number of Catholics in the world
has increased with growth registered across all five continents. The figures
are taken by the Fides news agency from the latest edition of the Churchs
Book of Statistics updated to 31 December 2012. These show that on that
date the number of Catholics in the world stood at 1,228,621,000 with an
overall increase of more than 15,000,000 compared to the previous year.
The Americas and Africa registered the biggest increases followed by Asia,
Europe and Oceania. The world percentage of Catholics stood at 17.49 %,
a decrease of 0.01% compared to the end of 2011.

The total number of priests in the world increased by 895 to 414,313.
Europe once again registered the largest decrease (-1,375) followed by
the Americas (-90) and Oceania (-80). In Africa the number of priests grew
by 1,076 and in Asia by 1,364.

There was an overall decrease in the number of women religious worldwide,
whose numbers dropped by 10,677 to 702,529. Once again Africa and Asia
showed increases whilst Europe and the Americas showed the biggest decrease
in the number of women religious.

The number of lay missionaries in the world is 362,488 with an overall
decrease of 19,234. In the field of education, the Catholic Church runs
71,188 kindergartens, 95,246 primary schools and 43,783 secondary schools.
Charity and healthcare centres in the world run by the Church are 115,352.

First new church in a century to be built in Turkey

Francis met Syriac Christians during his recent visit to Turkey (CNS)Turkish government gives go-ahead to Syriac church in Istanbul, Turkeys
government has given the go ahead for the building of the first new church
in the country for nearly a century.

The Syriac Orthodox church will be built in Ye?ilköy on the outskirts
of Istanbul, in an area which already has Greek Orthodox, Armenian and
Catholic churches. The announcement was made last Friday, after Turkeys
prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu met Turkeys religious leaders. He told
Turkish media: It is the first [new church] since the creation of the
republic [in 1923]. Churches have been restored and reopened to the public,
but no new church has been built until now.

Turkeys ruling party Justice and Development Party (AKP) has been accused
of Islamising the country, with the countrys 100,000 strong Christian
minority talking of an increasingly intolerant atmosphere. However the
party are in some ways more tolerant to Christianity than Turkish republicans
who tend to be hostile to all religious expression.

Before the outbreak of the First World War Turkey had a big Christian
population and Constantinople a Christian majority, but large numbers of
Armenians, Greeks and Syriac Christians were murdered or driven out in
the conflict. Since then the surviving Christians have faced discrimination.
But last Friday the prime minister insisted that AKP does not discriminate
between our citizens the principle of equal citizenship continues to be
our characteristic trait.

The countrys 20,000 Syriac population, mostly in the south-east of
the country, has now been swollen by large numbers of refugees fleeing
from Syria and Iraq. The $1.5m cost of the new Virgin Mary Church is being
met by the Syriac community.

Millions of Indian Christians Forced to Choose Between
Faith and Government Benefits for 'Untouchables'

BY STOYAN ZAIMOV , CHRISTIAN POST REPORTER
December 29, 2014|9:13 am

India
(PHOTO:
REUTERS/AMIT DAVE) A member of India's lowest caste "Dalits" shouts slogans
as he is detained by police during a demonstration in the western Indian
city of Ahmedabad, April 27, 2014. Dozens of the Dalits on Sunday held
a protest outside the venue of a yoga camp in the city demanding action
against Indian yoga guru Baba Ramdev for his recent remarks that Dalits
said were disrespectful.

Millions of Christians in India from the lowest caste system, known
as "dalit," are being forced to choose between their faith and receiving
government benefits available only to "untouchables," a report has said.
The International Christian Concern noted on Sunday that there are close
to 25 million Dalits across India who've converted to Christianity, but
now must make the choice between maintaining their faith or benefiting
from a government program that only helps them if they identify with their
Hindu background. "This choice has significantly affected the constitutional
right India's citizens have to freely choose a religion for themselves,"
the ICC reported. "It also has left millions of Dalits to have to decide
between choosing to follow Jesus as their Lord and Savior and receiving
government benefits that have the ability to take their families out of
poverty. All added up, this discrimination has affected the official appearance
of India's religious landscape."

The government benefits program in question concerned the Scheduled
Caste Order of 1950, which is a way of determining who can receive government
benefits and who cannot. Dalits, also referred to as "untouchables," make
up India's lowest caste. Rev. Madhu Chandra Singh, an elder from a Baptist
church, explained that although the Indian Supreme Court denies the situation,
Christians from the Dalit caste suffer oppression both before and after
their conversion. "After their conversion, Dalit Christians begin to suffer
religious persecution from religious fanatics but also a denial of Scheduled
Caste benefits because of the Schedule Caste Order of 1950, which I term
a double discrimination of Dalit Christians," Singh said.

Several Christian Indians speak out in the report, noting that the government
is forcing them to "lie" about who they are in order to receive the much
needed benefits. Franklin Caesar, a Christian rights activists, added:
"This system is against the fundamental rights provided to all India's
citizens in the Constitution. The Presidential Order of 1950 has destroyed
fundamental and constitutional rights of Dalits from Christian and Muslim
backgrounds; the benefits must be delink from religion." The report noted
that it is rumored that many millions more Dalits privately consider themselves
Christians, but do not identify publicly as such, in fear of losing the
government benefits.

Christians from various backgrounds face discrimination because of their
faith in India. Earlier in December, a group of 30 Hindu radicals attacked
a Christian pastor and 15 of his flock that had been singing Christmas
carols in the city of Hyderabad. The attack left the pastor and four other
Christians several injured, and was reportedly carried out because the
radicals believed the Christians were attempting to forcefully convert
people.

India (PHOTO: REUTERS/ADNAN ABIDI)

A woman holds her child as she stands outside her house at Dalit
village of Bhaddi Kheda in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh,
January 15, 2012. Although she presides over one of the most poverty-plagued
states of India -- its per-capita income is just above 50 percent of the
national average -- Kumari Mayawati's extraordinary personal extravagance
preserves a tradition set over the centuries by a succession of rulers
in the plains of the river Ganges.

Middle Eastern Christians: Battered, Violated, and
Abused, Do They Have Any Chance of Survival?

Throughout the Middle East, the birthplace of Christianity, Christians
are facing pervasive and systematic persecution that is steadily increasing
in its intensity and scope. A century ago, Christians represented some
20 percent of the population of the Middle East; today, that figure is
estimated at 4 percent. One leading academic authority in London
has estimated that between one-half and two-thirds of Middle Eastern Christians
have either been killed or left the area over the last century. Reviewing
a report on this trend, the Daily Telegraph led with the title: Christianity
close to extinction in the Middle East.

Pope Francis is expected to arrive in the Middle East this May, a region,
he said, where Christians are unjustly accused and are subjected to every
type of violence. Prince Charles recently expressed similar sentiments,
saying, It seems to me that we cannot ignore the fact that Christians
in the Middle East are increasingly being deliberately targeted by fundamentalist
Islamist militants.

In Muslim states throughout the Middle East the effects of this persecution
are demonstrated by the drastically declining Christian population. While
such censuses are by nature inexact, the rough picture they provide is
extremely valuable in understanding the true magnitude of this phenomenon.

A century ago Christians represented some 20 percent of
the population of the Middle East, today that figure is estimated at 4
percent.

To gain perspective on all this demographic data, it is useful to recall
that even after the Arab conquests of the Middle East in the 7th century,
the majority of the population in most cases was still Christian. Yet the
number of Christians steadily declined over the centuries that followed.

In 1927, Egypts Christian population was 8.3 percent of the general
population; by 2011, it was down to 5.3 percent. Similarly, Syrias Christian
population was found to be 9.7 percent of the population in 1970;
today, contesting reports find it to be somewhere between 4.4 to 10.2 percent.
A similar trend is seen in Iraq, too, where the Christian population has
dropped from 3.7 percent in 1970 to varying reports of 0.9 to 2.5
percent today. According to another calculation, there were between
1.2 and 1.4 million Christians in Iraq in 1990. Today there are fewer than
200,000. Iranian Christians have also suffered from this trend with
the population declining from 0.9 percent in 1970 to 0.35 percent
today.

As Pope Francis recently stated, the injustice of this persecution is
compounded by the fact that it is occurring in states where on paper,
freedom and human rights are protected. This author has spoken at
length regarding the great peril Christian life in the Middle East finds
itself in. To that end, he has visited with top Congressmen, including
then-Senators Santorum and Brownback; he has testified at congressional
hearings attended by a wide range of public officials; met with Vice President
Cheneys national security staff in the West Wing of the White House; consulted
and lectured at the State Department; and spoken at think tanks such as
the Hudson Institute.

If these warnings are not heeded, and these states continue to violate
the basic human rights obligations incumbent upon them, Christian life
may cease to exist in the very place of its birth. This danger was recently
voiced by British cabinet minister and Muslim, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi,
who stated:

Across the world, people are being singled out and hounded
out simply for the faith they hold .[Middle Eastern Christians] are rooted
in their societies, adopting and even shaping local customs. Yet [a] mass
exodus is taking place, on a Biblical scale. In some places, there is a
real danger that Christianity will become extinct.

If these warnings are not heeded, and these states continue
to violate the basic human rights obligations incumbent upon them, Christian
life may cease to exist in the very place of its birth.

RECENT PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS THROUGHOUT THE MUSLIM WORLD

Egypt

In October 2013, four Coptic Christians, including young girls of 8
years-old and 12 years-old, were killed, and 24 were injured when gunmen
fired on a wedding party in front of the Church of the Virgin Mary near
Cairo. Among those killed was eight year-old Mariam Ashraf. Ashrafs three
year-old brother and mother were also shot. Her father stated, Nobody
comes out to tell you honestly: We have arrested the culprit and they
are being subjected to the law. There is nothing like that. Eyewitnesses
of the attack stated that despite numerous calls for help, ambulances and
police only arrived two hours following the shooting.

Egyptian
Copts carry four coffins down the aisle of the Virgin Mary Coptic church,
on October 21, 2013, as thousands attend the funeral of the victims, gunned
down as they attended a wedding the previous evening at the same church.

In March 2010, an Egyptian court acquitted four Muslims in the
killing and beheading of 61 year-old Farouk Attallah. Attallah was killed
after the assailants shot him 31 times before beheading him in a busy market
place. The court based its verdict on the testimony of false witnesses,
exculpating the killers while refusing to accept the testimony of key witnesses
of the attack. Peter Sarwat, the victims attorney, described the verdict,
stating, It sends a clear message that Coptic blood is extremely cheap .
This acquittal will make permanent the present culture of impunity enjoyed
by Muslim aggressors against Copts. He continued, It is not safe for
Copts now, as any Muslims who wants to get rid of a Copt, would kill him,
knowing well that in the end he will be acquitted. Sarwat further described
how police often purposely prepare inadequate police reports in order to
facilitate the acquittal of Muslims.
Christians in the Minya Governorate in Upper Egypt have been the subject
of countless kidnappings. An official in the Egyptian Ministry of the Interior
stated that there had been 17 kidnappings in August and September. Ezat
Ibrahim, director of the Minya branch of the Al-Kalema Human Rights Organization,
reported that in November 2013 alone there were 9 cases of kidnappings.
One report found that since the start of the revolution in 2011, there
had been close to 100 kidnapping cases. In each of the cases, the Christian
families were forced to pay 100,000 to 250,000 Egyptian pounds ($14,500
to $36,300 USD) in ransom.
In one case of kidnapping, in June 2013, a six year-old Copt, Cyril
Yusuf Saad, was abducted and held for ransom. Despite his family paying
the ransom, the Muslim kidnapper, Ahmed Abdel Moneim Abdel-Salam, killed
the boy and threw his body in the sewer.
A Human Rights group has reported that in 2013 alone, 207 churches
have been attacked and 43 churches completely destroyed.

Christian
farmer Ishaq Aziz cradles a picture of his 17 year-old daughter Nirmeen,
a school girl, who went missing in February 2013, in the Minya town of
Matai, Egypt.

15,000 Christians in the village of Dalga have been forced to
pay the jizya, an additional tax or tribute imposed on conquered non-Muslims.
Those unable to pay are often beaten or killed. In one such case, Emad
Damian, 50, and Medhat Damian, 37, were murdered after refusing to pay
10,000 Egyptian Pounds demanded by the leader of a Muslim gang. The
two Copts had reported the incident to the local police; however, nothing
was done. Ahmed Fawzi, secretary of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party,
described the case, stating, the gang surprised the two Copts by going
to their home in the morning and showering them with bullets, leaving both
dead. [T]he police know who the killers are but are doing nothing to arrest
them.

Arguably the most telling aspect of this persecution is that this past
August, for the first time in 1,600 years, prayers were not held in the
Virgin Mary and Priest Ibram Monastery, which was destroyed by supporters
of deposed President Morsi. That same month, Coptic Bishop Anba stated
in the UK that over the past weeks we have witnessed an increasing trend
in anti-Christian rhetoric calling for the attack upon and eradication
of Christians and churches in Egypt. The Coptic Pope Tawadros II also
accused the Muslim Brotherhood of fomenting the anti-Christian violence.

In 2013 alone, 207 churches have been attacked and 43 churches
completely destroyed. An official in the Egyptian Ministry of the Interior
stated that there had been 17 kidnappings in August and September.

Syria

As of December 2013, since the beginning of the Syrian civil war in
March 2011, 450,000 Syrian Christians have fled their homes and 1,200 murders
of Christians have been documented.

In October 2013 in the town of Saddad, 45 Christians were killed and
the towns 14 churches were destroyed. Selwanos Boutros Alnemeh,
Syrian Orthodox Metropolitan of Homs and Hama, described these events as
the greatest massacre of Christians in Syria.

On January 8, 2014, Fadi Matanius Mattah was beheaded by Islamic militants
while travelling from Homs to the Christian village of Marmarita. The militants
intercepted and fired on the car he was traveling in along with another
Christian, Firas Nader. Mattah was beheaded after the militants noticed
the cross he was wearing. Nader, who was wounded in the attack, succeeded
in escaping after the militants believed he had been killed.

The Antiochian Orthodox church of Sts. Sergius and Bacchus in al-Thawra
was destroyed by rebel forces in August 2013. One refugee stated:

The Free Syrian Army demolished the [Sts. Sergius and Bacchus]
church. [T]hey tore up the sanctuary curtains, Bibles and other holy books,
and broke all the crosses, chairs and icons of Jesus and the saints. They
stole electrical appliances like fans, chandeliers and lights. They took
whatever was in the church, and sold it all. There is nothing there now.

In December 2013, 12 nuns from the village of Maaloula were abducted and
taken to a rebel-held town.

In January 2014, it was reported that an Armenian Christian was killed
by the al-Qaeda linked Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant after refusing
to convert to Islam. The man and his father were reportedly held for 115
days in a prison maintained by the group in Aleppo.

In June 2013, Mariam, a 15 year-old Christian, was kidnapped, repeatedly
gang raped, and then killed.56 Mariam was abducted by a commander
in the Jabhat al Nusra, who married, raped her, and then passed her on
to another man who did the same. This took place over the course of 15
days, during which Mariam was raped by 15 different men.

As of December 2013, since the beginning of the Syrian civil
war in March 2011, 450,000 Syrian Christians have fled their homes and
1,200 murders of Christians have been documented.

In January 2014, it was reported that a group of rebel forces from the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) imposed strict Sharia law in
the northern province of Raqqa. Among others, the directives include that
women must wear the niqab full face veil and all men must attend Friday
prayers at a mosque. A directive also stated that Christians must
not make renovations to churches or display crosses or any religious symbols
outside of churches.

Fighters
from the al-Qaida linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) marching
in Raqqa, Syria. Once a vibrant, mixed city, Raqqa is now a shell of its
former life, transformed by al-Qaida militants into the nucleus of the
terror groups version of an Islamic caliphate they hope one day to establish
in Syria and Iraq.

 After rebels attacked the town of Maalula on September 4, 2013,
Adnan Narallah, , described the scene. I saw people wearing Al-Nusra headbands
who started shooting at crosses. [O]ne of the shooters put a pistol to
the head of my neighbor and forced him to convert to Islam by obliging
him to repeat there is no God but God .Afterwards they joked, hes one
of ours now.

Another Maalula resident, Rasha, described how rebel forces murdered
her fiancé. I rang his mobile phone and one of them answered,
she said. She described how the man who answered told her that her fiancé
was asked to convert to Islam but refused. The rebel added, Jesus didnt
come to save him.

In al-Thawrah, three residents were stopped by rebel forces. The two
who were Muslim were released; the third, who was a Christian, was bludgeoned
to death.

In September 2013, the al-Qaeda linked group the Islamic State of Iraq
and the Levant, broke the crosses of the Church of the Annunciation and
the Church of Martyrs in the city of Raqqah before setting fire to the
contents of both churches.

This troubling situation in Syria was recently summed up by Rima Tuzun
of the European Syriac Union. While speaking to Nina Shea, Director of
the Center for Religious Freedom, Tuzun stated, [K]idnapping, killings,
ransom, rape 2013 is a tragedy for Christians in Syria. All Syrians have
endured great suffering and distress. The Christians, however, often had
to pay with their lives for their faith.

Iraq

On Christmas Day 2013, 37 people were murdered in attacks on Christians.

In March 2013, it was reported that over the course of only one decade,
the number of churches in Iraq has dropped from over 300 to only 57 today.

According to one Iraqi pastor, Christians have ceased observing basic
Christian traditions such as putting up a Christmas tree, due to fear of
persecution.

In
this mobile phone camera image obtained by the Associated Press, the interior
of the Our Lady of Salvation church is seen after gunmen took the congregation
hostage on Sunday, Oct. 31, 2010.

In October 2010, 51 worshipers and 7 Iraqi troops were killed after
gunmen from an al-Qaeda affiliated group attacked and laid siege to Our
Lady of Salvation church in Baghdad. Among the 51 worshipers killed were
five children and eight women. After these events, one church member commented,
We are the minority. We cannot defend ourselves. We cannot stay in this
country anymore.

Iraqi Christians, too, have not been immune from the imposition of
the jizya tax. Mofed, the owner of a photo shop in Baghdad, was threatened
by Muslims who came into his shop and presented him with three options:
convert to Islam, pay a $70,000 tax, or be killed. Mofed and his family
have fled to Jordan.

In a similar case, Androus, a Christian from the town of Mosul, described
a similar threat he received by phone. He described being told Because
you are infidels, you have to pay jizya. [E]ither you pay jizya, or we
will kill you or your son.

Also on June 25, 2013, two Christian owned businesses were bombed,
killing one of the Christian shop owners.

On August 2, 2011, 23 people were wounded when a car bomb exploded
outside of the Holy Family Church in Kirkuk.

Over the course of only one decade, the number of churches
in Iraq has dropped from over 300 to only 57 today.

Pakistan

78 people were killed and over 100 were injured in the bombing of the
All Saints Church in Peshewar in September 2013.

Pakistani
Rukhsana Saleem, 38, who survived the bombing of the All Saints Church,
prays at the church where the attack took place, in Peshawar, Pakistan,
Monday, Sept. 23, 2013.

Following the attack, four blasphemy cases were filed against Christians
in less than one month. In all four cases, no direct evidence against the
accused was available. Pakistans blasphemy laws disproportionately protect
Islam over other religions and have historically been used to persecute
Christians and other non-Muslims. The laws prescribe a punishment of life
imprisonment or death in certain instances.

In October 2013, an illiterate vendor was beaten by a group of Muslims
after it was discovered that fireworks he was selling were wrapped in pages
that had verses of the Quran written on them. A blasphemy case has been
filed against him. Khurram Shazhad, who filed the case, stated, The police
have also told us that they have put his name on the exit control list
at all airports, and he will not be able to leave Pakistan .[H]is punishment
will be an example to all those who dare insult Islam and our holy book.

In March 2013, a mob set fire to over 100 homes in a Christian neighborhood
in Lahore, displacing over 150 families. The attack took place after Sawan
Masih was accused of blasphemy following an altercation with a Muslim barber
who refused to serve him. One resident stated, They threw acid and stoned
our houses, then set them on fire. The authorities intervened only when
everything was destroyed. The local imam said Sawan will be killed when
found. Other Christian residents described how prior to the attack, police
instructed them to vacate the area for their security and not to worry
about their properties. Three months after the attack, hundreds of those
detained during the violence have been released. Naeem Shakir, a Christian
lawyer stated, Most of the people who were stopped after the attack were
declared innocent by the police and immediately released, for corruption
or political pressure.

Pakistans blasphemy laws disproportionately protect Islam
over other religions and have historically been used to persecute Christians
and other non-Muslims

In a similar case, a violent mob attacked the Christian village
of Francis Abad in the city of Gujranwala. The attack ensued following
a violent altercation between the Christian and Muslim communities that
resulted from a conflict between Christian youth and Muslim clerics who
accused the Christians of playing loud music outside of a mosque.

Iran

On October 16, 2013, four Christians were sentenced to 80 lashes for
drinking communion wine after being charged with consuming alcohol in violation
of Irans anti-alcohol law.

After being arrested in February 2012 in a raid on their house-church,
four Christians, Mojtaba Seyyed-Alaedin Hossein, Mohammad-Reza Partoei,
Vahid Hakkani, and Homayoun Shokouhi, were sentenced to 44 months in prison
for attending a house church, spreading Christianity, having contact with
foreign ministries, propaganda against the regime, and disrupting national
security. Homayoun Shokouhis wife, Fariba Nazemina, and son, Nima Shokouh,
also received two-year suspended prison sentences.

HUMAN RIGHTS OBLIGATIONS

It should be noted that Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Pakistan are all
parties to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
Article 18 of the Covenant provides that, Everyone shall have the right
to freedom of thought, conscience and religion." This also encompasses
the right to manifest ones religion or belief in worship, observance,
practice and teaching in public or in private. The respect of freedom
of religion is of such utmost importance, according to the Covenant, that
it may not be derogated from under any circumstances, even in times of
emergency as is allowed for other protected rights.

Moreover, parties to the Covenant must ensure that anyone whose rights
or freedoms are violated shall have an effective remedy. Additionally,
Article 26 provides that the law must guarantee to all persons equal and
effective protection against discrimination on any ground such as religion."
Furthermore, in regard to Pakistan and its blasphemy laws, Article 6 prescribes
that in states that have not yet abolished the death penalty, sentence
of death may be imposed only for the most serious crimes."

Lastly, in addition to individual rights and freedoms, as a minority
Christians are entitled to protections on the communal level as well. Article
27 says, In those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities
exist, persons belonging to such minorities shall not be denied the right,
in community with the other members of their group, to enjoy their own
culture, to profess and practise their own religion, or to use their own
language."

Consequently, Egypt, Syria, Iran, Iraq and Pakistan are all obligated
to prevent such acts as described above. With regard to Syria, it
should be noted that although most of the acts above were committed by
rebel forces, Syria may still be held liable for these actions in a number
of circumstances.

In addition to the obligations of these states to themselves prevent
and protect their citizens from persecution, the United States is also
empowered and committed to help combat such persecution abroad. The International
Religious Freedom Act of 1998 commits the United States [t]o condemn violations
of religious freedom, and to promote, and to assist other governments in
the promotion of, the fundamental right to freedom of religion." To that
end, the statute provides that the President may impose various sanctions
on States in response to violations of religious freedoms.

Two levels of violations may trigger the use of sanctions. The first,
particularly severe violations of religious freedom, includes torture
or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment [or] prolonged
detention without charges or other flagrant denial of the right to life,
liberty, or the security of persons." The second, violations of
religious freedom, refers to violations of the internationally recognized
right to freedom of religion and religious belief and practice as recognized
in such instruments as the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights. It includes actions such as arbitrary prohibitions on, restrictions
of, or punishment for assembling for peaceful religious activities such
as worship, preaching and prayer; speaking freely about ones religious
beliefs; and changing ones religious beliefs and affiliation."

The sanctions include, inter alia, public condemnation; directing the
Export-Import Bank of the United States, the Overseas Private Investment
Corporation, or the Trade and Development Agency not to approve the issuance
of any guarantees, insurance, extensions of credit, or participations in
the extension of credit with respect to the specific government, agency,
instrumentality, or official responsible for violations; and the cancellation
of working, official, or state visits.

In order to emphasize the seriousness of the acts of persecution described
above, it should be noted that the Rome Statute of the ICC provides that
when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack, persecution
against an identifiable group on religious grounds in connection to acts
such as murder and imprisonment constitutes a crime against humanity.

PALESTINIAN CHRISTIANS: A CASE STUDY

Palestinian Deception and Lip Service to Human Rights

With regard to Christians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the
leaders of the Palestinian Authority (PA), Hamas and the Christian community
would have you believe that they are immune from this disturbing trend
of persecution. At a Christmas tree-lighting ceremony in December 2013
in Bethlehems Manger Square, PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah stated,
Palestine has preserved the values of peace and tolerance by celebrating
Christmas for centuries."

Similarly, Vera Baboun, a Christian and the first female mayor of Bethlehem,
commented in a letter in honor of the holiday season that this is the
Bethlehem we also share with the world. A Bethlehem that is a model of
natural coexistence between Christians and Muslims, an example for the
rest of the region." However, the utopian society described by the mayor
does not even hold up to inspection of the mayors own experiences. Baboun
has been the subject of a smear campaign claiming that she had discriminated
against Muslims. Additionally, threats have been made against her
and her family. Following these events, Baboun filed a complaint with the
PA that was subsequently withdrawn following the intimidation of Fatahs
armed wing, the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas recently stated:

Christians are not a minority here: they are an integral
part of the Palestinian people. Orthodox, Catholics, Armenians, Assyrians,
Lutherans, Anglicans, Copts, Melkites, Protestants and others are all part
of the rich mosaic of this free, sovereign, democratic and pluralistic
Palestine we aspire to have and as established in our declaration of independence
and draft constitution.

Abbas invocation of the Palestinian Draft Constitution in support of the
Palestinians purported commitment to human rights is rather peculiar considering
that Article 7 of the Constitution provides that The principles of the
Islamic shari`a are a main source for legislation."

Yasser Arafat also made similar statements. In 1996, he claimed his
people have decided to celebrate with the Christian brothers, all Arabs
and all friends in the world the 2,000th anniversary of the birth of Jesus
Christ in a world religious celebration." It should be remembered that
this is the same Arafat who promptly after the PA gained control of Bethlehem
converted the Greek Monastery next to the Church of the Nativity into his
official residence and drastically altered the municipal boundaries of
Bethlehem in order to marginalize the citys Christian residents.

Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas, center, is welcomed by the Latin Patriarch of
Jerusalem, Fouad Twal, at the Church of Nativity on Christmas Eve, Wednesday,
Dec. 25, 2013.

Religious leaders echoed similar sentiments. The Bishop Alexius of the
Roman Orthodox Church in Gaza praised the Hamas government, stating, Hamas
and its government are keen to maintain the security of the Church and
the Gaza Strip [where] our people experience a general sense of safety,
even better than before. The Palestinian government in Gaza has confirmed
that it does not discriminate against Christians in the Gaza Strip on a
religious basis." Hamas media adviser, Taher Al-Nunu, similarly noted,
The Christians in Gaza are living in safety just like their Muslims brothers."

When one compares these statements to the reality of the
everyday life of Palestinian Christians, the persistence of the long-established
pervasive persecution of Palestinian Christians quickly becomes apparent.

The Reality of Christian Life under the PA and
Hamas Leadership

When one compares these statements to the reality of the everyday life
of Palestinian Christians, the persistent and pervasive persecution
of Palestinian Christians quickly becomes apparent. While rarely attracting
media attention, this persecution has been documented since the early day
of Palestinian self-administration in the 1990s. Sadly, numerous recent
examples of such persecution can be seen.

In July 2013, it was reported that the St. Lazarus Monastery in Bethany
(al-Eizariya) had been the subject of attacks including theft and stone
throwing. The attacks stemmed from a dispute with a local Muslim family
that asserted ownership of Monastery land. The monasterys Mother Superior
has appealed directly to PA President Abbas, clearly demonstrating that
the chance of obtaining legal recompense were next to nothing.

In December 2013, Christian residents of Bethlehem spoke of the hostile
environment they are forced to live in. One Christian told of how her friend
was forced to flee Bethlehem after being accused of selling her land to
Jews. The Palestinian Land Law prescribes the death penalty for the crime
of selling land to Jews. This prohibition is regarded as applying to the
selling of land to Christians as well and is applied and enforced in that
manner. Ramzi, a Christian, described how he was threatened with death
if he sold his land to Christians. Pastor Isa Bajalia, an evangelical
pastor, described a similar case where two men, one a member of the Tanzin
militia group, attempted to extort him in exchange for his land. He stated,
Its like the mafia. He says if I pay him $30,000 and assign the land
over to him, hell get off my back." Pastor Bajalia has been forced to
flee to the United States. As will be described below, this incident
is in clear violation of the Palestinian Authoritys legal obligations.
Article 17 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights protects everyones
right to own property." Additionally, as with similar Pakistani laws, this
PA law violates Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, which limits the use of the death penalty to the most serious
crimes."

In April 2013, arsonists set fire to the Christian Holy Family School
in Gaza. A couple months later in June, in a further case of the imposition
of extremist Islamic ideology, five Christian schools in Gaza were faced
with closure following a government order forbidding mixed gender institutions.
While the order applies to all schools, the five Christian schools are
the only coed schools in Gaza.

In July 2012, a Jericho court sentenced a man to a month of imprisonment
for eating in public during Ramadan. Five other people were also arrested
for the same conduct. On a related note, Sheikh Yusuf Idais, Chairman
of the PA Supreme Court for Shariah Law, stated [W]e have to monitor
the streets and severely punish anyone who [eats] in public during Ramadan,
and this is the responsibility of the security forces. I call upon others
[non-Muslims] to be considerate of Muslims feelings." One should take
note of the Sheiks use of the word considerate. One would think that
as Christians represent a miniscule minority in an overwhelmingly Muslim
environment, that Muslims should be the ones being considerate to the
vulnerable minority among them.

In June 2012, a young girl reciting a poem on a childrens program
broadcasted on official Palestinian Authority TV, stated, They [Christians
and Jews] are inferior and smaller, more cowardly and despised.1

In 2006, Hamas and Islamic Jihad gunmen set fire to the YMCA headquarters
in the Hamas-controlled city of Qalqiliya. One source in the city commented:
The identity of the attackers is well known to Hamas. We dont expect
the Hamas-controlled police, the Hamas city council or the Hamas Interior
Ministry to do anything about this attack."

In February 2008, gunmen attacked the YMCA library in the Gaza Strip.
The gunmen first kidnapped two of the librarys guards and then proceeded
to detonate a number of explosives. The attack, which destroyed the library,
was reportedly in response to the publication of Danish cartoons ridiculing
the Prophet Mohammed.
Palestinians
examine the damage to the library of the YMCA in Gaza City, Friday, Feb.
15, 2008.

In May 2013, Steve Khoury, Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Bethlehem,
told of the continuous harassment Christians have faced and the subsequent
fear that has lead Christians to refrain from wearing crosses in public
and carrying Bibles. Khoury further described the general sense of intimidation
felt by Christians in Palestinian society, stating, People are always
telling them, Convert to Islam. Convert to Islam. Its the true and right
religion." The First Baptist Church of Bethlehem has been firebombed 14
times.

In October 2007, Rami Ayad, a Christian and owner of a Gaza book-store,
was abducted and murdered, after having been publicly accused of missionary
activities.

In July 2012 according to the Greek Orthodox Church in Gaza, five Christians
were kidnapped and forcibly converted to Islam. One of those Christians,
Ramez Al-Amash, was allegedly kidnapped from his home and prevented from
contacting family. An Islamic group released a video of Al-Amash declaring
that he had converted voluntarily. After Al-Amashs mother had fallen ill,
his family succeeded in contacting the kidnappers and arranging a meeting
at the hospital. Al-Amash was accompanied by gunmen to the meeting and
was then taken to an unknown location. Al-Amashs parents lodged a complaint
with the Hamas police to no avail. In a press release, the Greek Orthodox
Church claimed that the police refused to intervene due to the involvement
of an Islamic religious leader and Hamas representative of the Palestinian
parliament, Salam Salameh, in the events. Local Christians have accused
the organization that Salameh chairs, the Hamas affiliated Palestine Scholars
Association, as being responsible for the conversions. Following these
events, Josef Elias, a Christian from Gaza City, stated, We arent safe
anymore. This is a conspiracy against our existence in the Holy Land."

Samir Qumsieh, a Christian community leader from Beit Sahour near Bethlehem,
spoke in December 2013 of the discrimination the Christian community faces.
He provided a subtle example that is reflective of the extensive persecution
of Christians. Qumsieh presented several souvenirs sold around Manger Square
in Bethlehem, such as a FC Barcelona soccer ball and a t-shirt showing
the Church of Nativity. The crosses that normally appear on both items
were removed. This is not a new phenomenon, as Qumsieh spoke of the removal
of the cross from souvenirs already in 2010.

In
this July 16, 2012, photo, a Palestinian Christian holds a poster of Ramez
Al-Amash, 25, during a rally at a Greek Orthodox church in Gaza City.

In a 2007 interview, Qumsieh described how Christians often have their
land stolen by the [Muslim] mafia." He described how Muslim gangs forge
documents attesting to their ownership of Christian owned land. When Christian
owners resist, they are often beaten. Qumsiehs own home was firebombed
after publicly speaking about the Christian communitys suffering.

In December 2013, the owner of a religious novelty store described
the regular defacement of Christian property. He stated, We are harassed,
but you wouldnt know the truth. No one says anything publicly about the
Muslims. This is why Christians are running away."

It should be noted that while the examples above may not be as alarming
as the experiences of Christians in Iraq, Syria, Iran, Pakistan, and Egypt,
they are reflective of the greater prevailing atmosphere of persecution
experienced by Palestinian Christians at the hands of their own leadership.

Christian Denial and Self-Blame

Perhaps the most saddening aspect of this persecution is the denial
of it by Christian leaders and their disconnect from the members of their
community. Qumsieh referred to Palestinian leaders as cowards more interested
in the Palestinian cause against Israel than their communitys own issues.
He stated, If somebody claims that there is no discrimination, he is a
liar. He added, [The mayor of Bethlehem] said everything is okay. Of
course. In her position she cant say anything else." On another occasion,
Qumsieh stated, The future of Christianity here is gloomy and anyone claiming
otherwise is wrong .Extremism is expanding and we, the Christians, are
the weakest link in the chain." A Palestinian journalist, Abd Al-Nasser
Al-Najjar, similarly noted Let us be honest with ourselves and courageously
say out loud that Palestinian Christians are taking many severe blows,
yet are suffering in silence so as not to attract attention." He
added, Despite all the injustices [against the Christians], no one has
seen or heard of any constructive action to curb it and to [defend] the
Christians rights  whether by the elites, by any of the three branches
(executive, legislative, and judiciary), by non-government organizations,
or even by the political factions themselves."

In addition to denying and ignoring the plight of their own people,
many Christian leaders go one step further in placing the blame for Christian
persecution onto Israel. While speaking during his annual Christmas message,
the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Foud Twal, used the opportunity to point
the finger at Israel for Christian suffering. The Patriarch stated, The
scenarios in Syria and Iraq can be repeated elsewhere, as seen in Egypt
and Libya. The instability affects everyone, but especially our faithful
who are tempted to emigrate." The Patriarch continued, stating, the Israeli-Palestinian
talks resumed in late July, after three years of interruption. But the
efforts are hampered by the continuous building of Israeli settlements.
As long as this problem is not resolved, the people of our region will
suffer.

Similar sentiments were expressed in literature published in honor of
Christmas by the UK-based Amos Trust, which stated:

If Jesus was born today in Bethlehem, the Wise Men would
spend several hours queuing to enter the town. The shepherds, despite being
residents of Bethlehem, would struggle to graze their sheep because their
land would be annexed by the building of the separation wall [Israeli security
fence], and a lack of freedom to travel and restrictions on trade would
make it very difficult for them to make a living.

The Palestinian Authoritys Human Rights Obligations

Article 18 of the PA Draft Constitution provides that The state of
Palestine shall abide by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and
shall seek to join other international covenants and charters that safeguard
human rights." Article 2 of the Declaration states, Everyone is entitled
to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction
of any kind, such as religion." Furthermore, Article 7 states, All are
equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal
protection of the law and against any incitement to such discrimination."
In addition to prohibiting incitement, this Article serves to extend the
protection of the Declaration to discrimination of any kind, even that
regarding rights and freedoms that are absent from the Declaration. Article
17 states that everyone has the right to own property."

Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says that everyone
has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right
includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either
alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest
his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance."
The PA is also obligated to protect fundamental human rights under the
2003 Palestinian Basic Law, which serves as the PAs interim constitutional
document. Article 10 of the Basic Law provides that Basic human rights
and liberties shall be protected and respected and that The Palestinian
National Authority shall work without delay to become a party to regional
and international declarations and covenants that protect human rights."
More explicitly, Article 8 of the previous 1995 Basic Law, states that
the PA recognizes and respects the fundamental human rights and freedoms
prescribed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights [and] the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights."

Article 18 of the PA Draft Constitution provides that The
state of Palestine shall abide by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
and shall seek to join other international covenants and charters that
safeguard human rights.

An additional source of the PAs Human Rights obligations is found in the
Barcelona Declaration, to which the PA is a party. The Declaration provides
that members undertake to act in accordance with the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights and respect human rights and fundamental freedoms and
guarantee the effective legitimate exercise of such rights and freedoms."
Further sources can also be found in various declarations and agreements
that the PA has signed with Israel.

While the PA is not a sovereign state and consequently a party to the
above treaties, it would be highly indisposed to on the one hand assume
the responsibilities of governance while on the other hand look for a way
out of complying with the law, which it purportedly adopted. If territorial
non-state actors, such as the PA, are to claim a right to become states
by virtue of the right to self-determination, they cannot in good faith
reject the applicability of norms that attach to statehood." Moreover,
international tribunals have recognized that unilateral declarations may
have the effect of creating legal obligations." However, as it may
be questioned whether non-state actors are capable of binding themselves
under international human rights law, at the least, such unilateral undertakings
may serve to stop the PA from denying its human rights obligations in certain
circumstances.

The PAs human rights obligations have also been recognized by the UN
Human Rights Council, which has stated that the PA has declared their
commitment to respect international human rights law and is bound to
respect international human rights standards." Moreover, the Human Rights
Council has stated in regard to the PA that it is clear that non-State
actors that exercise government-like functions over a territory have a
duty to respect human rights." It should be noted that some have argued
that such a rule has not yet attained the status of customary international
law.

The PAs human rights obligations have also been recognized
by the UN Human Rights Council, which has stated that the PA has declared
their commitment to respect international human rights law and is bound
to respect international human rights.

Hamas Human Rights Obligations

Hamas has also bound itself to abide by international human rights standards.
In July 2009, Hamas formally stated to the UN Fact-Finding Mission on the
Gaza Conflict (Goldstone Report) that they accepted the obligation to
respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, including those enshrined
in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Palestinian Basic Law."
Similarly, in the text of its 2007 National Unity Government program, Hamas
committed to respect public liberties; to strengthen the establishment
of democracy; to protect human rights insofar as they conform with our
character, customs and original traditions." Lastly, in a speech given
in 2006, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya stated that Hamas is determined
to promote the respect for human rights, the equality among citizens;
to fight all forms of discrimination; to protect public liberties, including
the freedom of the press and opinion."

Additionally, the UN Human Rights Council has also recognized that the
Gaza authorities have an obligation to respect and enforce the protection
of the human rights of the people of Gaza, in as much as they exercise
effective control over the territory, including law enforcement and the
administration of justice.196 However, one should take note that the Human
Rights Council made this determination on the basis of the language of
a previous Human Rights Council Report that appears to have been intended
as matter of lex ferenda that does not seem to reflect customary law.

Hamas has also bound itself to abide by international human
rights standards. In July 2009, Hamas formally stated to the UN Fact-Finding
Mission on the Gaza Conflict (Goldstone Report) that they accepted the
obligation to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, including
those enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Palestinian
Basic Law.

CONCLUSION

Muslim states such as Egypt, Syria, Iran, Iraq, and Pakistan are obligated
to protect the basic rights and freedoms of their Christians citizens.
They have clearly failed to live up to the liberal values they have assumed
upon themselves.

To contrast the treatment of the freedom of religion in those States
described above, it should be noted that Israel, as a democracy with an
independent and competent judiciary, has from its inception protected the
fundamental rights and freedoms of all its citizens.Thus, while not explicitly
enumerated in the 1992 Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty, a document
of constitutional status, Israeli courts have recognized the freedom of
religion as an inalienable and fundamental right of all citizens.199 The
true realization of these values is demonstrated by the fact that a Christian
Arab, Justice Salim Joubran, serves on the Israeli Supreme Court.

Muslim states such as Egypt, Syria, Iran, Iraq, and Pakistan
are obligated to protect the basic rights and freedoms of their Christians
citizens. They have clearly failed to live up to the liberal values they
have assumed upon themselves.

The Christians of the Middle East are suffering from debilitating persecution.
The Muslim states described above have neglected and abused the most fundamental
rights and freedoms of their most vulnerable citizens. In doing so, they
have not only violated the very legal obligations they have assumed but
also have violated the very values cherished by democracies the world over.
The recalcitrance of these states to enforce international human rights
standards has made them perpetrators and accomplices to a multitude of
human rights abuses.

The behavior of these states is an affront to the international community.
The definition of the crime of genocide includes deliberately inflicting
on a religious group conditions of life calculated to bring about its
physical destruction in whole or in part." Christians are being systematically
persecuted across the Middle East, the result being the termination of
communal Christian life in the Middle East. As one Palestinian Christian
stated, We arent safe anymore. [T]his is a conspiracy against our existence
in the Holy Land." While the situation of Christians today does not
amount to genocide, it is nonetheless alarming and disturbing. Left unchecked,
this persecution is liable to lead to another mass exodus of a minority
from the Middle East. It is evident that after Jews were driven from the
Muslim states of the Middle East in the 20th century, that Christians are
the next minority on the chopping block in the 21st century.

Christians are being systematically persecuted across the
Middle East, the result being the termination of communal Christian life
in the Middle East.

This eradication of minorities is of even more significance in light of
the present turbulent times of the post-Arab Spring Middle East. Many states
throughout the Muslim world are experiencing periods of governmental upheaval
and change.

Our modern concepts of freedom and liberty have deep roots in Jewish
scripture and the writings of early Christians. Medieval scholastics and
Protestant reformers were essential in developing our modern concept of
universal human dignity and freedom.204 The early Christian thinker Tertullian
was the first to coin the phrase religious liberty and argued that religious
liberty is a universal right of all people without any distinction such
as race and creed.205 As a visible minority group in the Middle East, Christians
bring a measure of diversity and pluralism to overwhelmingly Muslim societies.

The case of Palestinian Christians presents a unique opportunity
to deal with such human rights abuses before they become fully entrenched
with the backing of a state.

Thus, Christians have an essential role in stimulating the growth and development
of pluralism and democratic values in the region. Consequently, it is essential
that the treatment and rights of Christians be part of the current public
discourse on the character and makeup of these states. True democratization
will never be attained if the human rights abuses against Christians are
swept under the rug.

The case of Palestinian Christians presents a unique opportunity to
deal with such human rights abuses before they become fully entrenched
with the backing of a state. The PA and Hamas (in Gaza) are obligated to
protect the fundamental freedoms of their Christian citizens. The PA professes
to the world its yearning and right to statehood, but as described, it
has not lived up to the liberal values expressed in the foundational documents
of the would-be Palestinian state.

However, while the seeds have been planted, there is still time to take
action before they fully take root. Therefore, the question we must ask
ourselves is, will Palestinian efforts for statehood lead to another state
where minorities are brutally persecuted until they slowly cease to exist,
or to a liberal state such as Israel where such minorities are accorded
the rights and freedoms to which they are entitled?

Pope Francis is set to arrive in the Middle East this May. If this persecution
persists, the next time a Pope visits the region, he may have no flock
left to tend.

Pope Francis Gives Direction to Charismatic Renewal
and New Movements

By Deacon Keith A Fournie 12/20/2014

I believe that the term ecclesial movements is helpful and
we should begin to use it. It does not focus on a particular movement -
but on the Lord and His Church. Movements come and go, but the Church endures.

On November 22, 2014, Pope Francis addressed a Congress sponsored by
the Pontifical Council for the Laity. It brought together new movements
and communities in the Catholic Church - from across the globe. These movements
are not only flourishing, but multiplying in the Catholic Church. They
are also playing a vital role in reaching out to Christians of other communities.
Pope Francis sees these movements collectively. He also recognizes them
as one of the greatest missionary resources of the Catholic Church in her
work of reaching out to this age with the liberating message of the Gospel
of Jesus Christ. He views the time in which we live as a new missionary
age.
Pope
Francis at the last Pentecost Sunday Mass. Included in the massive crowd
were members of the diverse ecclesial movements from around the world.

CHESAPEAKE, VA (Catholic Online) - On November 22, 2014, Pope Francis
addressed a Congress sponsored by the Pontifical Council for the Laity.
It brought together new movements and communities in the Catholic Church
- from across the globe. These movements are not only flourishing, but
multiplying in the Catholic Church. They are also playing a vital role
in reaching out to Christians of other communities.

Pope Francis sees these movements collectively. He also recognizes them
as one of the greatest missionary resources of the Catholic Church in her
work of reaching out to this age with the liberating message of the Gospel
of Jesus Christ. He views the time in which we live as a new missionary
age.

Francis is a good pastor who wants to ensure that the members of these
ecclesial movements do not fall prey to one of the common temptations faced
by enthusiastic movements, to turn inward and become, to use one of his
favorite words of warning to the whole Church, self-referential.

Over the last few pontificates, the term ecclesial movements has become
the preferred term used to refer to the multiple movements which are growing
up within the Catholic Church and inspiring a tremendous spiritual renewal.
They all demonstrate that Jesus Christ has indeed been raised from the
dead - and that He continues His ministry through His Body, the Church,
of which we are members.

I believe that the term ecclesial movements is helpful and we should
begin to use it. It does not focus on a particular movement - but on the
Lord and His Church. Movements come and go, but the Church endures. Even
if we participate in a particular movement, our call is to bring people
into a relationship with Jesus and help them to find a home in His Body.

Though each movement may have a unique charism and mission, they have
some important common elements which are discernible. For example, they
all invite Christians into a personal relationship, an encounter, with
the Lord Jesus Christ.

They all proclaim that Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead and
is still alive in our midst in the Church which He founded. They all emphasize
the universal call of all baptized Christians to holiness. They all point
to living faith as united with action and directed toward mission.

On May 21, 2013, Pope Francis addressed a massive crowd which included
the leaders of ecclesial movements. It was Pentecost Sunday. He told them:
"The Holy Spirit draws us into the mystery of the living God and saves
us from the threat of a Church which is gnostic and self-referential, closed
in on herself; he impels us to open the doors and go forth to proclaim
and bear witness to the good news of the Gospel, to communicate the joy
of faith, the encounter with Christ. The Holy Spirit is the soul of mission."

The last three Popes have used the language of encounter, emphasizing
that encountering the Lord personally brings faith alive! Pope Francis
continues to emphasize this need for encountering the Lord. In fact, he
is even more insistent about it.

The ecclesial movements are 'evangelical' in the fullest sense of the
word. They call men and women into an encounter with Jesus Christ, the
Evangel. This encounter awakens the grace of Baptism within them and changes
them, opening them to conversion of life. The movements invite the men
and women of this age to experience the Pentecost of the Holy Spirit which
the Lord promised, right here and now, and not view it as a past event
alone.

Then, all who experience such an encounter with the Risen Christ, and
are clothed in the Spirit, are invited to find their home in the Heart
of His Church. From that base of operation they are enlisted into a mission
into the whole world, to take their place in the ongoing redemptive mission
of the Lord, as it continues through His Body, the Church.

The last conference for ecclesial movements in Rome exceeded over 120,000
representatives. There were representatives from over 150 ecclesial movements
in attendance, reflecting their growing diversity and numbers.

The Successor of Peter seeks to unite them in the one mission of the
Church in this moment in history. He is issuing a call for laborers in
the vineyard of a new missionary age. He does this because he is the Vicar
of Christ. The word Vicar means representative. It is Jesus Himself who
is calling us into the fields of this current age which are ready for harvest.

Men and women from every walk of life who have encountered the Risen
Lord Jesus and believe in the power of the Holy Spirit, are needed for
this new missionary age. Men and women who understand that the very nature
of the Church is missionary - and that every member of the Church is called
into that mission.

I offer below some excerpts from this pastorally wise, inspiring talk
given to the leaders of the new movements and communities. The problem
with much of the coverage of this pontificate is that we do not read or
hear these kinds of instructions from this Pope.

In these words, we can see the gift that Pope Francis is for the Church
in this new missionary age. He certainly recognizes the contributions of
the new movements and communities.

However, he warns them all of against the pitfalls which can accompany
enthusiastic movements. He encourages them all to move toward Christian
and ecclesial maturity. He calls them into the fullness of communion. He
invites them to live, as I like to say, in the heart of the Church, for
the sake of the world.

He calls them to develop an authentically Catholic Christian vision,
one which is rooted in Catholic teaching, but has a heart for the whole
Christian people and enters into the priestly prayer of Jesus Christ for
unity - so that the world may believe. (John 17:21) The direction that
Pope Francis gave to Charismatic Renewal and the new movements is for all
of us.

* * *
From Pope Francis

Dear brothers and sisters, Good morning!

At the heart of your deliberations in these days are two elements
which are essential for Christian life: conversion and mission. These are
intimately connected. In fact, without an authentic conversion of heart
and mind, the Gospel cannot be proclaimed; at the same time, if we are
not open to mission, conversion is not possible and faith becomes sterile.

The Movements and New Communities that you represent are moving towards
a deeper sense of belonging to the Church, a maturity that requires vigilance
in the path of daily conversion. This will enable an ever more dynamic
and fruitful evangelization. I would like, therefore, to offer you a few
suggestions for your journey of faith and ecclesial life.

First, it is necessary to preserve the freshness of your charism,
never lose that freshness, the freshness of your charism, always renewing
the "first love" (cf. Rev 2:4). As time goes by, there is a greater temptation
to become comfortable, to become hardened in set ways of doing things,
which, while reassuring, are nonetheless sterile. There is the temptation
to cage in the Holy Spirit: this is a temptation!

However, "realities are more important than ideas" (cf. Evangelii
Gaudium, 231-233); even if a certain institutionalization of the charism
is necessary for its survival, we ought not delude ourselves into thinking
that external structures can guarantee the working of the Holy Spirit.
The newness of your experiences does not consist in methods or forms, or
the newness itself, all of which are important, but rather in your willingness
to respond with renewed enthusiasm to the Lord's call.

Such evangelical courage has allowed for the growth of your Movements
and New Communities. If forms and methods become ends in themselves, they
become ideological, removed from reality which is constantly developing;
closed to the newness of the Spirit, such rigid forms and methods will
eventually stifle the very charism which gave them life.

We need always to return to the sources of our charism, and thus
to rediscover the driving force needed to respond to challenges. You have
not been schooled in such a spirituality. You have not attended an institution
of spirituality in this way. You are not simply a small group. No! You
are rather a movement, always on the way, always in movement, always open
to God's surprises which are in harmony with the first call of the movement,
namely the founding charism.

A further issue concerns the way of welcoming and accompanying men
and women of today, in particular, the youth (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 105-106).
We are part of a wounded humanity - and we must be honest in saying this
- in which all of the educational institutions, especially the most important
one, the family, are experiencing grave difficulties almost everywhere
in the world.

Men and women today experience serious identity problems and have
difficulty making proper choices; as a result, they tend to be conditioned
and to delegate important decisions about their own lives to others. We
need to resist the temptation of usurping individual freedom, of directing
them without allowing for their growth in genuine maturity. Every person
has their own time, their own path, and we must accompany this journey.

Moral or spiritual progress which manipulates a person's immaturity
is only an apparent success, and one destined to fail. It is better to
achieve less and move forward without seeking attention. Christian education,
rather, requires a patient accompaniment which is capable of waiting for
the right moment for each person, as the Lord does with each one of us.
The Lord is patient with us! Patience is the only way to love truly and
to lead others into a sincere relationship with the Lord.

One other consideration we must never forget is that the most precious
good, the seal of the Holy Spirit, is communion. This is the supreme blessing
that Jesus won for us on the Cross, the grace which the Risen Christ continually
implores for us as he reveals to the Father his glorious wounds, "As you,
Father, are in me, and I in you, may they also be in us, so that the world
may believe that you have sent me." (Jn 17:21).

For the world to believe that Jesus is Lord, it needs to see communion
among Christians. If, on the other hand, the world sees divisions, rivalries,
backbiting, the terrorism of gossip, please. if these things are seen,
regardless of the cause, how can we evangelize? Remember this further principle:
"Unity prevails over conflict" (Evangelii Gaudium, 226-230), because our
brothers and sisters are always of greater value than our personal attitudes;
indeed, it is for our brothers and sisters that Christ has shed his blood
(1 Pet 1:18-19); it has not been shed for my ideas!

In addition, real communion cannot exist in Movements or in New Communities
unless these are integrated within the greater communion of our Holy Mother,
the hierarchical Church. "The whole is greater than the part" (cf. Evangelii
Gaudium, 234-237), and the part only has meaning in relation to the whole.

Communion also consists in confronting together and in a united fashion
the most pressing questions of our day, such as life, the family, peace,
the fight against poverty in all its forms, religious freedom and education.
In particular, New Movements and Communities are called to coordinate their
efforts in caring for those wounded by a globalized mentality which places
consumption at the center, neglecting God and those values which are essential
for life.

In order to attain ecclesial maturity, therefore, maintain - I say
again - the freshness of your charism, respect the freedom of each person,
and always strive for communion. Do not forget, however, that to reach
this goal, conversion must be missionary: the strength to overcome temptations
and insufficiencies comes from the profound joy of proclaiming the Gospel,
which is the foundation of your charisms.

In fact, "when the Church summons Christians to take up the task
of evangelization, she is simply pointing to the source of authentic personal
fulfillment" (Evangelii Gaudium, 10), the true motivation for renewal of
one's own life, since all mission is a sharing in the mission of Christ
who always precedes and accompanies us in the work of evangelization.

-----

Deacon Keith A. Fournier is Founder and Chairman of Common Good Foundation
and Common Good Alliance. A married Roman Catholic Deacon of the Diocese
of Richmond, Virginia, he and his wife Laurine have five grown children
and six grandchildren, He serves as the Director of Adult Faith Formation
at St. Stephen, Martyr Parish in Chesapeake, VA. He is also a human rights
lawyer and public policy advocate who served as the first and founding
Executive Director of the American Center for Law and Justice in the nineteen
nineties. He has long been active at the intersection of faith and culture
and currently serves as Special Counsel to Liberty Counsel. He is also
the Editor in Chief of Catholic Online

Christians celebrate Christmas with heavy heart in
India

They are concerned over increasing attacks on the community across
the country.Archbishop
Anil Couto of Delhi addressing a gathering of devotees.Dec 23th, 2014

(Agenzia Fides) Bishops and Christian leaders India say they celebrate
Christmas this year with "a heavy heart" because of the violence against
Christians in various parts of the country.

The leaders of various denominations said in a statement in Delhi that
attacks against their people have increased across the country, especially
in the states of "Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and
now in the territory of the capital city Delhi.&rdquo; Archbishop Anil
Couto of Delhi signed the statement along with and other Catholic, Orthodox,
Protestant Bishops and civil society leaders.

The burning of Saint Sebastian's church in Delhi, as well as other incidents
of targeted violence, show contempt not only towards the religious feelings
of our community, but also for the protection guaranteed in the Constitution
of India," the Christian leaders said. They explained that these acts of
violence are not isolated incidents, but part of a series of interconnected
actions by various non-state actors. "Many politicians have called for
national laws against conversion, measures that affect the Christian and
Muslim communities, although not mentioned." "The well organized campaign,
also by senior members of Parliament belonging to the ruling party, is
a threat to peace and national harmony and calls into question the identity
and patriotism of different religious minorities in India", discrediting
and exposing them to further violence.

The statement said, "While the government won the election by presenting
a platform of 'development and good governance', radical groups see their
program of hatred and religious nationalism approved. It is a blatant attempt
to sabotage the Indian Constitution, which guarantees freedom of every
Indian citizen to profess, practice and propagate their religion."

The leaders noted that the measures, paradoxically called "Laws for
religious freedom", in force in several Indian states, have been in fact
limited and "have been used against minorities, giving police the power
to disrupt, arrest and punish priests, religious and church operators".
The Bishops have sent a memorandum to the government that lists various
"representative episodes of hostility and discrimination suffered by Christians
throughout India". They report cases of "social boycott" (some Christian
missionaries are denied entry in over 50 villages in the region of Bastar
in Chhattisgarh, and some Christian families in Orissa are not allowed
to use the public well in the village); physical aggression in many states;
desecration of religious buildings.

The statement concluded reminding that India's founders were committed
to ensure that the rights of all are protected regardless of religion,
gender or caste and hoping that a strong political will of civil and political
institutions would stop this discrimination and targeted violence.

10,000 People Protest Against Islam in the German City
of Dresden

Participants hold a banner during a demonstration called by anti-immigration
group Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West (Pegida)
in Dresden, Germany, on Dec. 15, 2014

A march against the Islamization of the West in the German city of
Dresden attracted about 10,000 people on Monday. Participants gathered
under banners reading Protect our homeland and No Sharia law in Europe,
but also the famous slogan We are the people, used during the demonstrations
that led up to the fall of the Berlin Wall, reports the BBC.

Theres freedom of assembly in Germany, but theres no place for incitement
and lies about people who come to us from other countries, said Chancellor
Angela Merkel in Berlin. Everyone [who attends] needs to be careful that
they are not taken advantage of by the people who organize such events.

It is the ninth week in a row that a movement called Patriotic Europeans
Against the Islamization of the West (Pegida) is organizing protests in
the German state of Saxony, but Mondays march is the biggest by far. Frauke
Petry, Dresden leader of the Pegida-sympathetic party Alternativ für
Deutschland, said the march was protesting against inadequate legislation
on asylum rights.

Germany accepts more asylum seekers than any other country, and immigration
rates have surged because of the wars in Syria and Iraq. However, a mere
2% of Saxonys population is foreign, and only a fraction of them Muslim,
the New York Times points out. Considering the countrys troubled past
with extreme right-wing politics, the protests have shocked many Germans.
Justice Minister Heiko Maas has called them a disgrace and the Social
Democrats, part of the ruling coalition, have branded them Nazis in pinstripes.

Bombay. Golden jubilee of first papal visit concluded

Archbishop Salvatore Penncchio, the papal nuncio to India, was the main
celebrant.

Posted on December 9, 2014 - Photo courtesy: bellevision
Mumbai:

Bombay Archdiocese on Sunday concluded the golden jubilee celebrations
of Pope Paul VI visiting the city for the 1964 Eucharist Congress as the
first pope in history to visit India. The moth-long program to commemorate
the pope opening the 38th International Eucharistic Congress in the city
ended with a Mass in at the Don Bosco School grounds in Wadala.

Archbishop Salvatore Penncchio, the papal nuncio to India, was the main
celebrant. The three-hour ceremony included a special mass followed by
a cultural program of music and dance, said Father Nigel Barrett, spokes
person of the archdiocese. Archbishop of Bombay Oswald Cardinal Gracias
stressed on the contribution of Catholic institutions to nation-building,
especially in education and healthcare, Fr Barrett, said.

The month-long activities, which included exhibitions, rallies and administration
of Sacraments, were planned to remember the event and help the spiritual
growth of the people. The archdiocese began on Nov. 6 what is called "the
circle of life" in which the Blessed Sacrament visited parishes of the
archdiocese where the faithful spent hours in adoration. It also opened
an exhibition of the Congress at the St. Josephs Convent in Bandra in
November, which will close only on Dec. 14.

On Dec. 3, the feast of St. Francis Xavier, a special blood donation
drive has been organized at various hospitals. During the week, prayers
were held for priests and religious. A Stations of the Cross was held on
Friday with the script from the original that was used by Blessed Paul
the VI during the Eucharist Congress 50 years ago. Parishes also were asked
to reach out the poor through acts of mercy as the Cardinal and his auxiliaries
planned visits to hospitals, the prison and the hospice.

India - Huge crowds flock to see St Francis Xavier's
relics on his feast day

Procession of the relics of St. Francis Xavier in Old Goa outside
Se Cathedral on his feast day, Dec. 3, 2014. Credit: Archdiocese of Goa
and Daman.

By Antonio Anup Gonsalves

Panjim, India, Dec 5, 2014 / 12:03 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Wednesday,
the 462nd anniversary of his death, an estimated 200,000 people visited
Se Cathedral in Old Goa to venerate the relics of St. Francis Xavier, the
Apostle to the Far East. The saint's relics are in the midst of an exposition,
lasting from Nov. 22 until Jan. 4, 2015, which only happens once every
ten years. The last exposition, in 2004, drew more than 2.5 million to
Goa. There is a great spiritual awakening through catechesis, which is
animating faith formation in the family and also fostering the building
of small Christian communities, explained Fr. Mario Saturnino Dias, director
of the Archdiocese of Goa and Daman's missionary center. We are indebted
to Goencho Saib in receiving faith, vocations, and the Catholic Church,
Fr. Dias told CNA Dec. 3.

The residents of Goa, irrespective of religion, hold St. Francis Xavier
in high esteem, calling him Goencho Saib, Konkani for Sir or Lord.
St. Francis Xavier was among the first companions of St. Ignatius of Loyola,
and was one of the first members of the Society of Jesus. He evangelized
in India, Indonesia, and Japan, and died in 1552 on his way to China. His
remains are normally kept at the Basilica of Bom Jesus in an elevated silver
casket, but they were transferred to Se Cathedral on Nov. 22 for public
veneration. Some 95-100,000 pilgrims were coming to Goa each day, but last
weekend the number surged to over 200,000 daily, in anticipation of his
feast. Some pilgrims have walked hundreds of miles on foot to visit the
relics.

People have identified St. Francis as a holy man of God who can intercede
for them; they have witnessed several grace and miracles, Fr. Dias said.
The faith of the people is also seen in the popular devotions that are
strengthened in the Eucharist. Thousands of faithful also queue for confessions.
Fr. Dias emphasized the role of catechesis in promoting and refining popular
piety, which the Goa-Daman archdiocese has taken up formation modules sent
to the parishes. During Mass on Dec. 3, Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Bombay
called Francis Xavier a holy man, a messenger of God. Cardinal Gracias'
family has roots in Goa, and he noted that it is through St. Francis' teaching
of the catechism, administering the sacraments, and forming Christian communities
that his forefathers received the faith. Through him my ancestors received
faith, and so today I am thanking God for this gift of faith.

The prelate, explaining the jewel of faith received from St. Francis,
asked the faithful Are we keeping it shining? Is the Gospel the center
of our life? Cardinal Gracias urged the families to maintain and continue
the Goan traditions of family prayer and Bible reading. The Mass was concelebrated
by Bishop Carlos de Pinho Moreira Azevedo, an official of the Pontifical
Council for Culture; Bishop Jose Caires de Nobrega of Manajary, in Madagascar;
Archbishop Blasco Collaco, apostolic nuncio emeritus to South Africa; and
Bishop Anthony Fernandes Barreto of Sindhudurg, a suffragan diocese to
Goa and Daman. Archbishop Filipe Neri Antonio do Rosario Ferrao of Goa
and Daman expressed his gratitude to the pilgrims and looked forward to
the Jan. 4 canonization of Bl. Joseph Vaz by Pope Francis during his trip
to Sri Lanka.

Bl. Joseph Vaz was a native of Goa who evangelized Sri Lanka in the
16th century and is known as the island's apostle.

Pope Francis: Muslim leaders should condemn terrorism

Pope Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew I signed a pledge to support
Christians in the Middle East

BBC 01-12-2014. Pope Francis has urged Muslim leaders around the world
to condemn terrorism carried out in the name of Islam. Speaking on board
a flight back to Rome, the Pope said that he understood the harm caused
by the stereotype that linked Islam with terrorism. He said a "global condemnation"
of the violence would help the majority of Muslims dispel this stereotype.

Pope Francis was returning from a three-day visit to Turkey, where he
discussed divisions between faiths. The pontiff denounced people who say
that "all Muslims are terrorists". "As we cannot say that all Christians
are fundamentalists," he said. In Istanbul, Pope Francis called for an
end to the persecution of Christians in the Middle East. In a joint declaration,
the Pope and Patriarch Bartholomew I said they could not resign themselves
to a "Middle East without Christians".

Patriarch Bartholomew is the spiritual leader of the world's 250 million
Orthodox Christians, whose Church broke with Rome in 1054 in a schism that
divided the Christian world. Constantinople, as the modern Turkish city
of Istanbul was once known, was the centre of Orthodox Christianity until
the Ottoman conquest in 1453. Only around 120,000 Christians remain in
Turkey, where the vast majority of the 80 million citizens are Muslims.
Pope Francis also called for dialogue with Muslims to counter fanaticism
and fundamentalism when he visited the Turkish capital, Ankara.

'Indifference of many'

Pope Francis flanked by Vatican spokesman father Federico Lombardi talks
to journalists during a press conference aboard the flight towards Rome
Pope Francis was returning to Rome after his three-day visit to Turkey
when he made his latest comments Christians have been targeted by Muslim
hardliners in Iraq and Syria in recent years, with a violent campaign of
persecution by Islamic State militants this summer when they captured the
Iraqi city of Mosul.

In their joint declaration, the two Church leaders said: "We express
our common concern for the current situation in Iraq, Syria and the whole
Middle East. "Many of our brothers and sisters are being persecuted and
have been forced violently from their homes. It even seems that the value
of human life has been lost, that the human person no longer matters and
may be sacrificed to other interests. And, tragically, all this is met
by the indifference of many."

The pontiff and the patriarch also called for peace in Ukraine. The
violent conflict in Ukraine this year has accentuated differences between
its large Orthodox and Catholic communities. The Pope and the patriarch
said: "We pray for peace in Ukraine, a country of ancient Christian tradition,
while we call upon all parties involved to pursue the path of dialogue
and of respect for international law in order to bring an end to the conflict
and allow all Ukrainians to live in harmony." As his visit drew to a close,
Pope Francis met Turkey's chief rabbi, whose flock has diminished to just
17,000 people.

At the Blue Mosque on Saturday, one of the greatest masterpieces of
Ottoman architecture, the Pope turned east towards Mecca, clasped his hands
and paused for two minutes as the Grand Mufti of Istanbul, Rahmi Yaran,
delivered a Muslim prayer. The Pope then visited Hagia Sofia - which for
almost 1,000 years was the most important Orthodox cathedral, then for
nearly five centuries a mosque under the Ottomans, and is currently a museum.

For Istanbul, a city that passed from the Byzantines to the Ottomans,
a place where religions, empires and cultures collided, the Pope's message
of interfaith dialogue has profound resonance, says the BBC's Mark Lowen
in Istanbul.

INDIA - Christian missionaries labeled "enemies of
Hindus"

New Delhi (Agenzia Fides) - Christian missionaries are identified among
the five biggest enemies of Hindus: is what is said in a pamphlet distributed
at World Hindu Congress 2014 which has just ended in Delhi. As Fides learns,
other "sworn enemies of Hindus" highlighted in the text are: Islam, Marxism,
materialism, "Macaulayismo" (the public education system launched by Tohmas
Macaualy during the days of British dominion, ed).

These concepts, expression of Hindutva ideology (which preaches "India
for only Hindus") found space during the Congress, given the massive presence
of militants and radical organizations.

"The combination of forces and anti-Hindus is weakening Indian society",
is what is said and therefore the faithful are invited to counter the cultural
system in force. The pamphlet defines Islam "poisonous", criticizes the
cultural and religious pluralism and the approach of Christian missionaries
who "wickedly introduce the value system of their own western societies"

World Hindu Congress in 2014 was attended by over 1,500 delegates from
40 countries. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 26/11/2014)

In Turkey, Pope Francis Voices Concern Over "Grave
Persecution" of Minorities in Iraq and Syria

Erdogan hears plea for Christians as Pontiff begins three-day visit.

Vatican Radio  Pope Francis has urged more interreligious dialogue
to help bring peace and end all forms of "fundamentalism, terrorism and
irrational fears."

His appeal came in a speech to Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
and other top political leaders on the first day of his pastoral visit
to the cities of Ankara and Istanbul. His visit comes in response to invitations
from the Turkish government and from the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew
I, spiritual leader of 300 million Orthodox Christians.
In his discourse today, the Pope stressed the importance of religious
freedom and respect for human dignity and said we must never "resign ourselves"
to ongoing conflicts in the Middle East. He spoke of his concern
over the conflicts in Iraq and Syria along with the "grave persecution"
of minorities there and praised Turkeys "generous" response in welcoming
a large number of refugees from these regional conflicts.

Here is an English translation of Pope Francis address to President
Erdo?an and other Turkish political leaders:

Mr President, Distinguished Authorities,Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am pleased to visit your country so rich in natural beauty and history,
and filled with vestiges of ancient civilizations. It is a natural
bridge between two continents and diverse cultures. This land is
precious to every Christian for being the birthplace of Saint Paul, who
founded various Christian communities here, and for hosting the first seven
Councils of the Church. It is also renowned for the site near Ephesus
which a venerable tradition holds to be the Home of Mary, the place where
the Mother of Jesus lived for some years. It is now a place of devotion
for innumerable pilgrims from all over the world, not only for Christians,
but also for Muslims.
Yet, the reasons why Turkey is held with such regard and appreciation
are not only linked to its past and ancient monuments, but also have to
do with the vitality of its present, the hard work and generosity of its
people, and its role in the concert of nations. It brings me great
joy to have this opportunity to pursue with you a dialogue of friendship,
esteem and respect, in the footsteps of my predecessors Blessed Paul VI,
Saint John Paul II and Benedict XVI. This dialogue was prepared for
and supported by the work of the then Apostolic Delegate, Angelo Giuseppe
Roncalli, who went on to become Saint John XXIII, and by the Second Vatican
Council.

Today what is needed is a dialogue which can deepen the understanding
and appreciation of the many things which we hold in common. Such
a dialogue will allow us to reflect sensibly and serenely on our differences,
and to learn from them. There is a need to move forward patiently in the
task of building a lasting peace, one founded on respect for the fundamental
rights and duties rooted in the dignity of each person. In this way,
we can overcome prejudices and unwarranted fears, leaving room for respect,
encounter, and the release of more positive energies for the good of all.
To this end, it is essential that all citizens  Muslim, Jewish and Christian
 both in the provision and practice of the law, enjoy the same rights
and respect the same duties. They will then find it easier to see
each other as brothers and sisters who are travelling the same path, seeking
always to reject misunderstandings while promoting cooperation and concord.
Freedom of religion and freedom of expression, when truly guaranteed to
each person, will help friendship to flourish and thus become an eloquent
sign of peace.

The Middle East, Europe and the world all await this maturing of friendship.
The Middle East, in particular, has for too long been a theater of fratricidal
wars, one born of the other, as if the only possible response to war and
violence must be new wars and further acts of violence. How much
longer must the Middle East suffer the consequences of this lack of peace?
We must not resign ourselves to ongoing conflicts as if the situation can
never change for the better! With the help of God, we can and we
must renew the courage of peace! Such courage will lead to a just,
patient and determined use of all available means of negotiation, and in
this way achieve the concrete goals of peace and sustainable development.

Mr. President, interreligious and intercultural dialogue can make an
important contribution to attaining this lofty and urgent goal, so that
there will be an end to all forms of fundamentalism and terrorism which
gravely demean the dignity of every man and woman and exploit religion.
Fanaticism and fundamentalism, as well as irrational fears which foster
misunderstanding and discrimination, need to be countered by the solidarity
of all believers. This solidarity must rest on the following pillars:
respect for human life and for religious freedom, that is the freedom to
worship and to live according to the moral teachings of ones religion;
commitment to ensuring what each person requires for a dignified life;
and care for the natural environment. The peoples and the states
of the Middle East stand in urgent need of such solidarity, so that they
can reverse the trend and successfully advance a peace process, repudiating
war and violence and pursuing dialogue, the rule of law, and justice.

Sadly, to date, we are still witnessing grave conflicts. In Syria
and Iraq, particularly, terrorist violence shows no signs of abating.
Prisoners and entire ethnic populations are experiencing the violation
of the most basic humanitarian laws. Grave persecutions have taken
place in the past and still continue today to the detriment of minorities,
especially  though not only  Christians and Yazidis. Hundreds of
thousands of persons have been forced to abandon their homes and countries
in order to survive and remain faithful to their religious beliefs.
Turkey, which has generously welcomed a great number of refugees, is directly
affected by this tragic situation on its borders; the international community
has the moral obligation to assist Turkey in taking care of these refugees.
In addition to providing much needed assistance and humanitarian aid, we
cannot remain indifferent to the causes of these tragedies. In reaffirming
that it is licit, while always respecting international law, to stop an
unjust aggressor, I wish to reiterate, moreover, that the problem cannot
be resolved solely through a military response. What is required is a concerted
commitment on the part of all, based on mutual trust, which can pave the
way to lasting peace, and enable resources to be directed, not to weaponry,
but to the other noble battles worthy of man: the fight against hunger
and sickness, the fight for sustainable development and the protection
of creation, and the relief of the many forms of poverty and marginalization
of which there is no shortage in the world today. Turkey, by virtue of
its history, geographical position and regional influence, has a great
responsibility: the choices which Turkey makes and its example are especially
significant and can be of considerable help in promoting an encounter of
civilizations and in identifying viable paths of peace and authentic progress.

May the Most High bless and protect Turkey, and help the nation to be
a strong and fervent peacemaker! Thank you!

Muslims Expel All Christians From a Village in Pakistan

Christians forced to leave because a Christian married a Muslim woman.Pakistan/Aleteia (Aleteia.org/ar)  In a Pakistani village in the Punjab
province, Christian families are being forced to leave because a Christian
married a Muslim woman. The Muslims in this village became enraged when
this occurred and began threatening them.

This event is happening as little was two weeks after the atrocious
crime wherein a Christian couple was burned in a brick kiln by a Muslim
mob. The couple had been working there when they were accused of blasphemy;
a crime they did not commit. The Punjab has once again become the scene
for a new tragedy.

All of the Christian families in one of the villages of the Sahiwal
region were forced to flee from their homes due to these threats from Muslims.
They condemned one of the Christians for getting married to someone from
their group. Abid Masih, a friend of the couple, revealed to Press Trust
of India news agency on the 13th of November that, They were married in
October and once the Muslims in the village learned of the marriage they
demanded that the young woman be returned or we would bear the consequences.

Prohibited by Islamic LawThe names of the newly married couple are Shahab Masih and Ruksana
Kosar, who is in her twenties. They no longer live in the village where
the young woman was raised. They now live in the Khanewal region, which
is where the young Christian man lived. The future couple met in the village
of Sahiwal, where Shahab frequently traveled to visit his family.
When the news of the marriage was learned, the Muslims in Sahiwal attacked
Shahabs family as well as other Christian families in the village. The
Muslims demanded that Ruksana be returned immediately, according to Sharia
which prohibits Muslim women from marrying a man from another religion.

In this regard Abid clarified saying, We told them that Shahab is
now living in Khanewal with his wife and that it would be better for them
to go and discuss the matter with him there. However, they would not listen.
Then, the Muslim womans father Jamil Hussein proceeded to file a complaint
with the Shahkot police, accusing Shahab and two of his family members
with kidnapping. Meanwhile, the entire Muslim community was threatening
to kill Shahabs father and all of the villages Christians.

The Police provided no assistanceThe Christians pleas for help from the local police were all in vain.
In light of this fact, the nine Christian families living in Sahiwal (approximately
25 people) were forced to flee during the night leaving their homes and
jobs. The Investigator, Muhammad Riyad from the Shahkot police defended
himself by saying, We have not arrested anyone yet due to the sensitive
nature of this case. We will not take any further steps before undergoing
a thorough investigation.

Without shelter and resourcesThis is the third time during the past few weeks that Christian families
in the Punjab have been forced to leave their village because of Muslims.
Two other cases occurred in the areas of Sargodha and Narowal. Meanwhile,
Aslam Sahoutra, leader and president of the Humanitarian Liberation Front
of Pakistan, condemned these recent incidents. Furthermore, he demanded
that the Punjab provincial president, Shahbaz Sharif ensure that families
can return to their villages with police protection. They have been left
destitute since being forced from their homes and villages.

Likewise, other human rights activists protested and condemned this
recent incident. They renewed their complaint that members of the Muslim
community are immune from all prosecution, yet there is a complete absence
of protection for Christians.

Shocking murder of a married couple who were burned aliveThis has all happened at a time when the country is still living in
a state of shock because of the murder of the Christian couple Shahjad
Masih and Shama Bibi who were burned alive on the 4th of November by an
angry mob of hundreds of Muslims who accused them of desecrating the Quran.

In light of the extreme barbarism by which this tragedy is characterized,
the media in the country are throwing their support exclusively behind
the Islamic community; which happens to be the largest religious group
in Pakistan. Yet, the communitys leader, Siraj al-Haqq did meet with the
families of the two victims on November 10th in order to offer his condolences.
The government was urged to take decisive measures against the perpetrators
of this terrible crime. Since these crimes occurred on the 4th of November
protests have erupted in several of the countrys largest cities, demanding
that authorities learn from this tragedy in order to prevent it from happening
again.

In Faisalabad more than a thousand human rights activists, a variety
of religious leaders, Christians, Muslims, monks and students gathered
for a candlelight vigil commemorating the slain couple. This all took place
in front of local government buildings on Thursday, November 13th. This
march, which was organized by the National Minorities Alliance of Pakistan
(NMAP), the Joshua Welfare Organization (JWO) and the Muslims and Christians
Union, was concluded with an interfaith prayer in honor of Shama and Shahzad.

Eradication of minoritiesAt the end of the demonstration Lala Robin Daniel, an NMAP leader stated
that, the Christians that were murdered in the name of religion under
the pretext of anti-blasphemy laws amounts to the eradication of minorities.
A government official over minority rights demanded that immediate measures
be taken regarding the violations being committed in the name of the anti-blasphemy
laws, and that harsher punishments be given to those who would use those
laws for revenge or to settle personal scores. Father Suhail Kanwal supported
this announcement by saying, the arbitrary use of anti-blasphemy laws
is an act of blasphemy in and of itself and deserves the same punishment.
Furthermore, he recommended that authorities create a committee entrusted
with investigating blasphemy cases that are still pending before the courts,
such as the much publicized case involving Asia Bibi. Finally, the Muslim
leader Yunus Abar mentioned the importance of immediate reforms for workers
rights; especially in the labs and brick factories where minority workers
are often the victims of violations and harassment.

In Lahore, thousands of demonstrators (students, activists from the
Human Friends Organization and the International Stefanos Union) rallied
on Saturday the 15th of November in front of the Press Club. During the
demonstration they chanted, Justice must be served, and Stop the massacre
of minorities. Furthermore, they demanded that the death penalty be given
to those who murdered Shahzad and Shama. During this demonstration, which
was followed by a candlelight vigil to commemorate the Christian couple
who had been murdered, a picture of the brick factorys owner, Yusuf Ghawjar
was burned as an act of condemnation for the guilty who have been allowed
to avoid punishment.

During the day on the 17th of November, hearings were started in order
to arraign those who had been accused of being the ringleaders in the mass
murder of Christians. Among those who had been arrested there were fifty
who had been detained since the tragedy occurred. A counter-terrorism court
was convened to hear the cases of four who were the owners of the brick
factory and afterwards the judge remanded them to prison where they will
be held until the next scheduled hearing on the 19th of November.

Church warns yoga, feng shui practitionersPracticing yoga and believing in feng shui, horoscopes and lucky charms
can make one vulnerable to demonic possession, warned an exorcist of the
Archdiocese of Manila.

When you practice yoga, you are told to empty your mind while saying
[the mantra] om, so you can feel relaxed. But when you empty yourself,
youre opening yourself to possession. You have to be careful because demons
might take advantage of (this) empty [vessel of your soul] and possess
it, Msgr. Jay Bandojo said during a recent talk at the Arzobispado de
Manila in Intramuros.
The belief in occult practices, feng shui, lucky charms, amulets, fortune-telling,
astrology, horoscope, transcendental meditation and similar practices also
allow demons to have a claim over a person, said Bandojo, who has special
permission to perform exorcisms.

Spirit of the Glass

Playing Spirit of the Glass (the local version of the Ouija board),
even as an observer, can be risky, he added. The mere fact that you took
a peek [means] youre already contaminated. It means there could be a [demon]
attached to you because of your curiosity.
Instead of asking people to empty their minds, Catholic teaching tells
the faithful to center on Christ, on the angels, on saints and on Mama
Mary, when they pray, meditate or contemplate, said Bandojo.Bad spirits
also attach to people who engage or have interest, in hidden knowledge
usually (found) in masonry, illuminati (groups), scientology (and) fraternities
spirits attach to you when you engage in those, the monsignor said.
People may also be vulnerable to demonic possession through the sin
of omission and sin of commission, he added.
You sin because you are doing what is not good, and you sin because
you did not do what is good, he explained. Every sin has a demon involved.
Do not think that its just a small sin or (that) nobody knows about
it because you already allowed a spirit to enter you, to be attached to
you, Bandojo said.

Dont curse

Cursing and being cursed also open one to demonic possession, this exorcist
said. So even at the height of your anger, dont curse other people. Parents,
dont curse your children because the demons will take advantage, they
will ride on your curse. And you (would have) put problems in your childrens
future, Bandojo said.
He added that being in a state of shock or trauma also makes one vulnerable
to possession.Because its like your mind is empty and demons will take
advantage (of it). Thats why some trauma patients attempt suicide. They
hear voices (telling them) kill yourself, kill your friend, jump off
a building, Bandojo said, adding that demonic possession can result in
the destruction of ones personality, relationships, health and wealth.
But being possessed by evil can also be avoided, he said.
All you need to do is live the sacraments live a good Catholic life,
away from (bad) influences, Bandojo said, adding that apart from basic
sacramentals like holy water and exorcised oil and salt usually used by
exorcists to ward off demonic possessions, religious items such as rosaries,
scapulars, crucifixes and prayer books can also protect us from evil.
But dont use them like amulets, Bandojo cautioned. If you are influenced,
if you are open [to influences], these things become ineffective. They
only become effective if you are in (a state of) sanctifying grace.

Chavara, a New Indian Saint Who Was a "Spiritual and
Social Revolutionary"

A devout Christian in a non-Christian land who worked on behalf of
allMannanam, India  Canonization may be a practice exclusive to Catholics
and Orthodox. But when Pope Francis raised two Indians to the altars Sunday,
the celebrations were not confined to Christians.

Indeed, in spite of growing tensions between Hindu nationalists and
Christians in India, many Hindus joined in celebrations in predominantly
Christian areas of the subcontinent while Pope Francis conducted the canonization
rites in Rome on the feast of Christ the King.

Father Kuriakose Elias Chavara, a priest from the Indian state of Kerala,
was canonized along with Sister Euphrasia Eluvathingal, who belonged to
the Congregation of the Mother Carmel, founded by St. Chavara. Pope Francis
also canonized Italians Giovanni Antonio Fraina, Ludovico da Casoria, Nicola
da Longobardi and Amato Ronconi.

Father Chavara, a priest of the Syro Malabar Church, which traces its
lineage to St Thomas the Apostle, worked for Indians across religious and
caste divides, and many non-Christians today say they are in his debt for
the work he did. As Kerela's chief minister Oommen Chandy, an Orthodox
Christian, put it, the priest "is not the exclusive heritage of a denomination
or a community. He belongs to the whole Kerala.

Chandy led a delegation of Keralas political leaders, including Hindu
ministers in his cabinet, to a Mass Sunday at St. Chavaras shrine at Mannanam.
The Mass drew about 100,000 people.

Father Chavara founded St. Josephs monastery on top of Mannanam hill
in 1831 and spent 33 years there. His body was moved here in 1889, and
the place has been one of the most popular pilgrimage sites in Kerala for
decades.

Father Chavara was a revolutionary both in spiritual matters and in
social action. He paved the way for the social transformation and educational
progress of our state, Chandy acknowledged.

Keralas progress in the field of education is rooted in the outcome
of Father Chavaras order that each church should have a school to educate
the low castes who were not allowed to enter schools at the time, Chandy
said.

Kerala is the largest Christian pocket in India with nearly 7 million
Christians among its 35 million people. It is also the most literate
and educationally advanced in India. The Church there runs nearly half
of the 15,000 private primary schools.

Father Chavara pioneered many social service initiatives like education
of the weaker sections, free lunch for the poor, and empowerment of women,
noted Ramesh Chennithala, a Hindu and Keralas home minister. The government
is only following some of the examples Father Chavara showed us, he added.

Thirvanjur Radhakrishan, another Hindu minister in the Kerala government,
hailed St. Chavara as a friend of the poor.

Earlier, Bishop Mathew Arackal of the Syro-Malabar Eparchy of Kanjirappilly
spoke of the unique legacy of Chavara, who went around begging for money
to provide lunch to hungry students from lower castes.

He pointed out that the priest opened the first Sanskrit school in 1846
(at the monastery compound) at a time when lower castes were punished for
studying the language of the priestly Brahmin class.

It was a bold step for the lifting up of the poor, Bishop Arackal
said.

Saints are not created in the Vatican. They are born and live among
us. I am proud to say that I am from Mannanam, C V Anand Bose, a Hindu
and senior official in the Indian government, told Aleteia November 25
on flying back to New Delhi after attending the celebrations at Mannanam.

Our family is grateful to Father Chavara for encouraging the education
of women. We are beneficiaries of that, said Bose, who belongs to a Nair
family which used to shun the education of women.

Inspired by Father Chavaras teachings, my grandmother Naniammma sent
my mother for English medium education in a Catholic school. The result
is that all of us are highly educated, said Bose, who qualified for the
prestigious Indian Administrative Service in 1977.

Bose added that his great-great grandfather Iswaran Nair was a close
friend of Father Chavara who used to visit their ancestral home regularly.

It is a difficult task to summarize the multifarious life witness of
Father Chavara, Cardinal George Alencherry, Major Archbishop of the Syro
Malabar Church, wrote in an introduction to the souvenir pamphlet.

Born in 1805, Chavara was ordained a priest in 1829. Two years later,
he co-founded the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate, the first indigenous congregation
which now has more than 3,000 professed members of men.

In 1866, Father Chavara also founded the Congregation of the Mother
Carmel, which now has over 6500 nuns.

The canonization of St. Chavara, who had been beatified by Pope John
Paul II during his visit to Kottayam in 1986, also drew massive crowds
at Koonammavu where he died and at his native parish of Kainakiry.

Anto Akkara writes from New Delhi, India.

Top 10 Studies Showing Risks to Couples in Same-Sex
Unions

Risks show how misguided are the Human Rights Campaign's attacks
on U.S. bishops and Courage

Last month the LGBT-activist Human Rights Campaign (HRC) carried out
its latest campaign  targeting eight Catholic bishops in the U.S. who
publicly expressed support for traditional marriage, the Courage apostolate
and, in some cases, even quoted the constant teaching of the Church (see
CCC nos. 2357 -2359) concerning homosexual conduct and persons with same-sex
attraction (SSA). The aim of this Synod-related effort was to push for
the acceptance of homosexual conduct and unions by the Catholic Church
and to marginalize bishops who spoke out against such conduct and unions.

The demonstrations against these bishops likely had no effect on the
Extraordinary Synod or the targeted bishops. The HRC-friendly confusing
language on homosexual persons and unions in the interim report was replaced
by paragraph 55 in the final, official Relatio, which reverted to Catholic
teaching as set forth in the Catechism. Yet, a surprising one-third of
the bishops at the Extraordinary Synod (62/180) rejected the approach based
on the Catechism and a 2003statement by the Congregation for the Doctrine
of the Faith: There are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual
unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to Gods plan
for marriage and family. Nevertheless, men and women with a homosexual
tendency ought to be received with respect and sensitivity (no. 55).

It is hoped that during the Synod on the Family that will take place
in October 2015, the discussion of homosexual unions will take into account
the serious risk factors inherent in the homosexual lifestyle. In fact,
an understanding of these physical, emotional and spiritual risks is essential
to fostering a charitable, pastoral approach to those with SSA. I use the
term fostering rather than developing because such an outreach to those
with homosexual tendencies and their families has been present internationally
in the Church for over 30 years, thanks to the apostolate of Courage International
(www.couragerc.net).

Today, numerous peer-reviewed published studies report serious psychological
and medical risks associated with same sex unions. Ten of these studies
are described below.

1. One of the most extensive studies of same-sex couples found
that only seven of the 156 couples had a completely exclusive sexual relationship
and that the majority of relationships lasted less than five years. Couples
whose relationship lasted longer than five years incorporated some provision
for outside sexual activity in their relationship. The psychologists wrote,
The single most important factor that keeps couples together past the
10-year mark is the lack of possessiveness. ... Many couples learn very
early in their relationship that ownership of each other sexually can be
the greatest internal threat to their staying together (McWhirter, D.
and Mattison, A. 1985. The Male Couple: How Relationships Develop. (Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall). The risks? Outside sexual activity can
expose the partner to sexually-transmitted diseases, and relationship break-up
typically gives rise to emotional distress.

2. Partner instability is also present in lesbian relationships.
A 2010 study in a respected peer-reviewed journal, showed lesbian relationships
to be statistically less stable than heterosexual relationships. (Schumm,
W. 2010. Comparative Relationship Stability of Lesbian Mother and Heterosexual
Mother Families: A Review of Evidence, Marriage and Family Review
46: 499-509)

3. A 2011 study analyzed the impact of sexual orientation on suicide
mortality in Denmark during the first 12 years after legalization of same-sex
registered domestic partnerships (RDPs), using data from death certificates
issued between 1990-2001 and Danish census population estimates. This study
found that the age-adjusted suicide risk for same-sex RDP men was nearly
eight times greater than the suicide risk for men in a heterosexual marriage.
(Mathy, R. et al. 2011. The Association between Relationship Markers of
Sexual Orientation and Suicide: Denmark, 1990-2001, Social Psychiatry
and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 46: 111-117)

4. In a 2010 report, the U.S. National Longitudinal Lesbian Family
Study, 40 percent of the lesbian couples who had conceived a child by artificial
insemination had broken up. (Gartrell, N. & Bos, H. 2010. U.S. National
Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study: Psychological Adjustment of 17-year-old
Adolescents, Pediatrics, 126 (1): 28-36.)

5. A 2002 study of lifetime abuse victimization revealed that
7 percent of heterosexual males reported being abused whereas 39 percent
of males with SSA reported being abused by other males with SSA. (Greenwood,
G. et al. 2002. Battering victimization among a probability-based sample
of men who have sex with men, American Journal of Public Health, 92:196469).

6. A major study published in the journal Cancer in May 2011
revealed that men with SSA in California are twice as likely to report
a cancer as heterosexual men. Most troubling is the mean age of onset of
cancer in the men with SSA - age 41, compared to age 51 in heterosexual
males. (Boehmer, U. et al. 2011, Cancer Survivorship and Sexual Orientation,
Cancer, 117:37963804.)

7. A November 12, 2014 article in the Wall St. Journal on HPV-related
cancers throat cancers stated that it increased by 72 percent between 2000
and 2004. Most of that growth has been in men and the number of sexual
partners was suggested as a contributing factor. A researcher stated that,
the problem with HPV-positive oral cancer is that premalignant lesions
are not clinically detectable. Theyre deep within the tonsils that are
in the base of the tongue. By the time HPV-infection is detected, they
usually already have Stage 3 or 4 cancer.

8. A 2007 study published by the New York Academy of Medicine
found that over 32 percent of active homosexuals report that they have
suffered abuse by one or more partners during the course of their lives.
Fifty-four percent (n?=?144) of men reporting any history of abuse reported
more than one form. Depression and substance abuse were among the strongest
correlates of intimate partner abuse. (Houston, E. & McKiman, D.J.
2007, Intimate Partner Abuse Among Gay and Bisexual Men: Risk Correlates
and Health Outcomes, Journal of Urban Health 84: 681-690.)

9. A 2014 systematic review of 19 studies examining associations
between intimate partner violence (IPV) and men with SSA. The pooled lifetime
prevalence rate of any form of IPV was 48 percent. (Buller, A. et al. 2014.
Associations between Intimate Partner Violence and Health among Men Who
Have Sex with Men: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. PLOS Medicine,
11(3): e1001609. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001609.)

10. Research on men with SSA in Amsterdam found that 86 percent of new
HIV infections occur within steady partnerships. The researchers concluded,
Prevention measures should address risky behavior, especially with steady
partners, and the promotion of HIV testing. (Xiridou, M. et al., 2003.
The contribution of steady and casual partnerships to the incidence of
HIV infection among homosexual men in Amsterdam, AIDS 17:1029-38.)

Research on persons who had sought help from Courage revealed that those
with SSA had more mental health distress than a heterosexually-oriented,
normative sample. SSA respondents who had become more chaste had an improvement
in their overall mental health. Measures of authentic spirituality were
also positively correlated to increased mental health. Positive correlations
were also found between chastity, religious participation and self-reported
measures of happiness. (Harris, S. 2009. Mental health, chastity and religious
participation in a population of same-sex attracted men. Doctoral dissertation.)

The recommendation of an international expansion of this effective apostolate
should be considered by the Synod as a primary pastoral outreach to those
with homosexual tendencies and their families. As St. John Paul II said
of this apostolate, "COURAGE is doing the work of God!"

Rick Fitzgibbons, MD is the director of the Institute for Marital
Healing outside Philadelphia and has worked with several thousand couples
over the past 38 years. Trained in psychiatry at the Hospital of the University
of Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia Child Guidance Center, he participated
in cognitive therapy research with Aaron T. Beck. In 1986 he wrote a seminal
paper on the psychotherapeutic uses of forgiveness in the treatment of
excessive anger and in 2000 coauthored Helping
Clients Forgive: An Empirical Guide for Resolving Anger and Restoring Hope
with Dr. Robert D. Enright, University of Wisconsin, Madison, for American
Psychological Association Books. The second edition of this book is in
press. He has been an adjunct professor at the Pontifical John Paul II
Institute for the Studies of Marriage and Family (The Catholic University
of America, Washington, DC) and a consultor to the Vatican's Congregation
for the Clergy

Are we entering the age of Asian saints?

Recent Indian canonizations are a matter of pride for the 'Third
Church'.

Posted on November 24, 2014, 3:04 PM

By Fr Dominic Emmanuel
New Delhi:
It is widely believed and accepted  although there is a lack of incontrovertible
evidence  that Christianity was brought to India by two of Jesuss apostles,
Thomas and Bartholomew.
Thus, Christianity can be said to have existed in India from almost
the time the religion was born.

Despite this, the names of Indian Christians  particularly their holy
credentials  have somehow not found a prominent place in Church annals.

However, with the canonization of Blessed Kuriakose Elias Chavara and
Sister Euphrasia on Sunday, Sister Alphonsa a few years ago, and with up
to 25 more Indians up for possible sainthood, that situation seems to be
changing fast.

The question that naturally springs to mind is, why have things changed
so quickly?

Is it because the rules for canonization have been changed or relaxed?
Is it because Catholics in India have become more holy in recent times?
Is it because people here are being noticed because of their new social
and economic status? Or has the Vatican become more sympathetic towards
the faithful in this region?

In his 1974 book: The Coming of the Third Church, Swiss Capuchin Walbert
Buhlmann predicted the rise of Christianity outside of Western Europe,
which he coined the Second Church. The First Church being Christianity
in its formative years in the Middle East.

Buhlmann, observing changes in the world, especially after the Second
Vatican Council (1963-65), said: The Church at home in the Western world
for almost 2,000 years will, in a short time, have shifted its centre of
gravity into the Third World, where its adherents will be much more numerous.

Similarly, Adrian Hastings, speaking about this shift in 1991, in Modern
Catholicism: Vatican II and After, wrote: The geography of the Catholic
Church in 1990 has become remarkably different from that of 1960. Where
for instance, there was then a mere handful of African bishops, there are
now many hundred.

The recent spurt of canonizations in Asia and moves to put other Asians
on the road to sainthood provide sufficient evidence of the accuracy of
Buhlmanns predictions made exactly forty years ago as well as the observations
made by Hastings.

With the exception of St Gonsalo Garcia  a Franciscan friar from Maharashtra,
who was martyred in Japan along with 25 other missionaries and canonized
in 1862  the naming of new Indian saints and the prospect of more from
the predominantly Hindu nation, is certainly a matter of pride for the
Third Church.

The line up of several Venerables (on the way to sainthood), Blessed
and Saints from India and hopefully in future from other Asian and African
countries is certainly a sign of the shifting sands of time and tide.

Ecclesia in Asia, a bishops synod document released in 1999 in Delhi
by late Pope John Paul II (now a saint himself), envisaged the third millennium
as the time for "a great harvest of faith" in Asia.

The document said: "Just as in the first millennium the Cross was planted
on the soil of Europe, and in the second on that of the Americas and Africa,
we can pray that in the Third Christian Millennium a great harvest of faith
will be reaped in this vast and vital continent."

The 20th century saw more canonizations in Asia than any other time,
and the trend is continuing.

In 1984, Pope John Paul II canonized 103 Korean Catholic martyrs. In
February this year, Pope Francis declared Paul Yun Ji-chung and 123 companions
Venerable and in August he beatified Paul during his visit to Korea, elevating
them closer to sainthood. Plans are also afoot to beatify other 20th century
Korean Catholics who were killed by communists during the Korean War.

Pope John Paul II was instrumental in declaring saints in Asia. In 1988,
he canonized 117 Vietnamese Catholic martyrs. In 2002, he canonized 120
people in China  87 Chinese Catholics and 33 European missioners  martyred
in the past three centuries.

The Philippine's second saint, Pedro Calungsod was canonized in 2012,
some 25 year after the countrys first saint  Lorenzo Ruiz  was canonized
in 1987.

Sri Lanka will get its first saint when Blessed Joseph Vaz, an Indian
missionary, is canonized during Pope Francis's visit there in January.

Looking at this phenomenon from the perspective of faith we must look
at the words of Archbishop Anil Couto of Delhi who said the beatification
and canonization of saints has to take its own time according to God's
plan and not human reckoning.

"The declaration of someone as a "saint" by the Church cannot be forced.
It is the result of a long-drawn process that follows strict procedures
that cannot be bypassed or compromised with, he said.

The cult of a Saint emerges from the common people themselves who are
the first judges of the exceptional holiness of a life of someone who is
dead and gone but who has left behind a brilliant example of authentic
Christian life and so is an intercessor on our behalf before the throne
of God," he added.

In a country like India, where people have deep spiritual roots, regardless
of which religion they may belong to, many more people have certainly led
a godly life and are worthy to be considered as saints. Our task would
be not just to carry on but intensify that legacy.

Fr Dominic Emmanuel is a media consultant and commentator based in Delhi.
He is a priest belonging to the Society of the Divine Word.

Pope Francis addresses pilgrims from India

In his remarks, he made special mention of the Catholics in Kerala,
thanking them for their apostolic zeal.

Posted on November 25, 2014, 8:40 AM

Vatican City:
Pope Francis on Monday greeted pilgrims from India who came to Rome
for the canonization of Father Kuriakose Elias Chavara and Sister Euphrasia
Eluvathingal.

Father Kuriakose Elias was a religious, both active and contemplative,
who generously gave his life for the Syro-Malabar Church, putting into
action the maxim sanctification of oneself and the salvation of others,"
Pope Francis said.

For her part, Sister Euphrasia lived in profound union with God so
much so that her life of holiness was an example and an encouragement to
the people, who called her Praying Mother.

In his remarks, he made special mention of the Church in the Indian
state of Kerala, thanking them for their apostolic zeal.

Here is the text of the Popes address to the pilgrims from India
I am pleased to join you in giving thanks to the Lord for the canonization
of two new Indian saints, both from the State of Kerala. I take this opportunity
to thank the Church in India, the Church in Kerala, for all its apostolic
vigour and for your witness to the Faith! My heartfelt gratitude! Keep
up the good work! Kerala is rich in vocations to the priesthood and religious
life. Continue on this path, working through your witness. I thank Cardinal
George Alencherry, the Bishops, priests, men and women religious, and each
of you, dear brothers and sisters of the Syro-Malabar rite. I remember
in a special way the Cardinal of the Syro- Malankara rite: thank you! Did
you know that your Syro-Malankara Cardinal is the youngest member of the
College of Cardinals?

You have come to Rome in great numbers on this very important occasion,
and have been able to live days of faith and ecclesial communion, praying
also at the tombs of the Apostles. May this time of celebration and intense
spirituality help you to contemplate the marvellous works accomplished
by the Lord in the lives and deeds of these new saints.

Father Kuriakose Elias Chavara and Sister Euphrasia Eluvathingal, who
was a member of the religious Institute founded by him, remind each of
us that Gods love is the source, the support and the goal of all holiness,
while love of neighbour is the clearest manifestation of love for God.

Father Kuriakose Elias was a religious, both active and contemplative,
who generously gave his life for the Syro-Malabar Church, putting into
action the maxim sanctification of oneself and the salvation of others.
For her part, Sister Euphrasia lived in profound union with God so much
so that her life of holiness was an example and an encouragement to the
people, who called her Praying Mother. There are many consecrated religious
here today, especially consecrated women. May you also may be known as
Praying Sisters.

Dear brothers and sisters, may these new saints help you to treasure
their lessons of evangelical living. Follow in their footsteps and imitate
them, in a particular way, through love of Jesus in the Eucharist and love
of the Church. Thus you will advance along the path to holiness. With this
hope and the assurance of my prayers, I impart to each of you and to all
your loved ones my Apostolic Blessing. Thank you!

Millions expected to venerate remains of Saint Francis
Xavier

Preparations are underway in Goa for the once-a-decade event.

By Christopher Joseph. Old Goa: - Posted on November 20, 2014

Some five million people are expected to venerate the remains of the
16th century Spanish missionary Francis Xavier when they are exhibited
for 40 days beginning this weekend in Goa. For the once-a-decade event,
the government of Goa has allotted some US$1.6 million to renovate and
build infrastructure such as roads, bridges, and accommodation facilities.
Officially called the "Exposition of the Sacred Relics of St Francis Xavier,"
it has become a state-Church collaborative event, promoted by the state's
Tourism Department.
The main attraction is the remains of the saint, who died in 1552.
The remains are preserved in a glass-paneled silver casket and kept inside
the 16th-century Basilica of Bom Jesu (Good Jesus). During the exposition
the casket will be kept inside the nearby Se Cathedral, another 16th century
building. These buildings and numerous other churches and convents in Old
Goa, the former colonial capital of the Portuguese in Asia, are now under
the Archeological Survey of India (ASI), a federal agency for the care
and maintenance of historically important structures across the nation.
"We're determined that this event is celebrated in all its pomp and piety.
We are working with other government agencies and the Church to make it
a huge success," said ASI's Gangadhar Koregaonkar, assistant superintending
archeological engineer.

Archeological experts, stationed in Goa to oversee painting and maintenance
of the buildings, said they want to make sure that temporary structures
being put up on the vast campus do not harm the old buildings. The exposition
has been increasing in popularity with each event recording a roughly twentyfold
increase in the last 30 years, said Father Alfred Vaz, chief of the organizing
committee of the Goa archdiocese. "This year we expect some five million
people, at least half a million foreigners, to visit and venerate the relics,"
said the senior priest.

He said for years after the death of the saint on Shangchuan Island
near China in 1552, the body was considered "uncorrupt" but the miracle
of the body ended long ago. "What we now have is only the relics or remains
of the body," he said. The clothed skeleton can be seen through the glass
panels of the silver case with the help of a light inside. Fr Vaz said
people look forward to the exposition "to see the relics closer and kiss
them seeking the blessings" of the saint. The body was buried on the island
where he died but a year later Jesuits moved it and temporarily buried
it inside a church in Malacca. At that time in February 1553, they reportedly
found the body uncorrupt. In December of the same year, the body was
shipped to Goa. The first exposition took place 23 years after the Jesuits
were expelled in 1759 following the suppression of their society. The 1782
exposition was, historians say, to ally fears that Jesuits took away with
them the uncorrupt body of the Jesuit saint.

A series of expositions followed but most of them marked special occasions.
Since 1964, however, the relics have been displayed for 40 days every 10
years, covering the saints feast day on December 3. Critics like Jose
Mario, a Catholic who lives close to the cathedral compound, said the Church
is "running a business" with the exposition of the remains of the saint.
"It is no more faith. It is a business of donations and no one tells how
much they collect."
He argued that if it were not for the money earned, the exposition
would be for a shorter period, there would not be so many donation boxes
around, and there would be no real need to keep a dead body unburied especially
since officials agree that the miracle of the "uncorrupt body" is over.
"My faith should not depend on a body there," he said.

But Fr Vas said such accusations are common from people who do not understand
the faith aspect of the event. "I do not know how much in donations we
got last time, but the income from such activities go to fund our orphanages
and old age homes. And, we don't spend money on this. The government departments
take care of it," he said. "For us, this is an occasion to catechize our
people. It is an occasion of spiritual renewal for the people," he said
explaining several liturgical and biblical programs they have scheduled
for the period. And, most Goans who have migrated to other countries and
are living in different cities come home for this special occasion, he
said explaining the reason for having decennial expositions.

This year organizers are trying to attract more young people to the
event by organizing an international FIFA approved soccer match involving
teams from Egypt, Brazil, Portugal, Ghana, Nepal, India and Colombia. The
teams are scheduled to play in at least four Indian cities, Fr Vaz said.
The matches with the theme, "preach from the ground" will cost some $10
million to organize but "we expect to cover at least some of the expenses
from the tickets because some of these teams will have World Cup players",
the priest said. Goa is well known for soccer in India, "we would like
to spread the spirit of Goan football across India with a Christian spirit"
as a special exposition program, he said. He also dismissed rumors that
this will be the last exposition. "I think these are rumors spread by travel
agents to get more customers," he said.

The day my soul became Catholic was the day I found out that as a divorced
and remarried woman I could not receive Communion. Tears of sorrow and
joy flowed. Sorrow because I had by then grasped the truth of transubstantiation,
only to find I couldnt consume, and joy because at last we found the ground
of real authorityhis Church, the one he founded, the one tasked to keep
all he taught her Apostles.
I came to Catholicism from Calvinism. Thats a tough row to hoe if
there ever was one. It was that prescient and beautiful encyclical Humanae
Vitae which softened my heart to the Catholic Church. After that, I couldnt
get enough. I wanted to hear what the Church believed in her own words.
And so I kept readingTheology of the Body, Familiaris Consortio, Mulieris
Dignitatem, and Church documents significant to those of us coming from
the Reformed tradition.
Because I had been divorced, and because another family member recently
left his marriage after forty-three years, our children had many doubts
and questions about marriage. One day around the dinner table one of the
kids voiced their anxiety, stating in our presence that you never know
if both mom and dad will be there for you as you grow up.
This clued us in to how deeply they had been affected by our choices
and the culture that made them possible. As Christian parents we were keen
to bring up our children in a Church unwavering on marriage. The Catholic
Church offered a rich and beautiful doctrine of marriage in all its fullness,
especially as a picture of Christs marriage to his bride, the Church.
This vision was slowly leading us to consider the Churchs other claims.

But theres more to coming to the Catholic faith than theological reading.
As any convert can attest, there are many ups-and-downs during the journey:
Struggling with doctrine followed by insights from magisterial passages
coupled with Scripture, feeling still and alone followed by being overwhelmed
by the presence of the saints before us, crying out to God for His presence
and having Him answer in the Blessed Sacrament. Many times I woke up in
the middle of the night thinking: How can I be considering Catholicism?
But then in the morning at daily mass praying the liturgy, I experience
the profound presence of God, even though I do not take the Eucharist.
Since I cannot now receive the Eucharist, it is through spiritual communion
that I am kept spiritually fed by the Lord. This act of willing reception
is not, as some may think, second-class communion. Far from it. To believe
so is to diminish one of the ways Christ feeds his people, as Hans Urs
von Balthasar warns in his book, Prayer:

For spiritual communion is by no means merely an act of longing for
the reception of the Lord under the sacramental signs; much deeper, and
more properly, it is the act of prayer of a living and understanding faith,
by which it enters into living communication and communion with Christ,
the eternal and living Truth.
Balthasar wants to impress upon the reader the objective reality of
spiritual communion. It is not the absence of something but the presence
of him. I dont get to pine or indulge in self-pity during the distribution
of the Eucharist. And God forbid I should become angry with my priest or
the Church for not giving me Communion. As Archbishop Charles J. Chaput
put it during the 2014 Erasmus lecture, none of us are welcome on our
own terms, in the Church were welcome on Jesus terms. Thats what it
means to be a Christian, you submit yourself to Jesus and His teaching.
You dont recreate your own body of spirituality.

Before you feel sorry for me, remember that the Church didnt do this
to me. I did this to myself when I disobeyed my God by walking away from
my first marriage. Was I young and immature? Yes. Were there circumstances
that drove me to such drastic measures? Sure. And yes, I am currently pursuing
a Decree of Nullity, trusting God for a just decision. Whatever the outcome,
I can not, and will not walk away from the Church for standing firmly on
the teachings of Christ.

Some people may be shocked at the idea of submitting to a church that
tells me because Im divorced and remarried I cant take Communion. But
unless it can be shown otherwise, any tampering with Communion for the
divorced and remarried will corrupt the doctrine of marriage, andby diminishing
the image of the Church as bride of Christdebase the Church

I have run to her for shelter. I now prayfor my sake, for my childrensthat
the Church will not waver.

Luma Simms is the author of Gospel Amnesia. Follow her @lumasimms.

Chaldean Priests Forced to Choose Between Apostasy
and Martyrdom

October 24, 2014 by Kathy Schifferis

Patriarch Sako suspends ten Iraqi-American priests for not returning
to Iraq by deadline.

Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako, head of the Chaldean Catholic Church,
has suspended ten Iraqi-American priests who fled Iraq to escape the Gulf
War in the 1990s and established parishes and ministries here in the United
States.The Patriarch demanded that the priests return to Iraq before October
22, 2014, or face suspension from priestly ministry.

The head of Chaldean Catholics around the world is concerned that there
is a need for priestly ministry and spiritual leadership in Iraq, where
any remaining Catholic Christians must live in fear for their lives.
Aleteia interviewed Patriarch Sako during the recent Synod, and His Beatitude
explained his decree:

The priests who escaped without any canonical documents encourage others
to leave, including their own families. They have asked for exile in Western
countries, while others have remained in fidelity to their people. There
is no justice in this. If we do not put a limit on this, others will also
leave and the Church and the country will be without Christians.

We have a vocation. A priest has given himself to the Lord and to service:
he shouldnt seek his freedom, his security. His future is found in fidelity
to Christ and his people, not in America or Australia. One might say that
he has citizenship in these countries, but what does that have to do with
the priesthood?

There are also six monks: a monk has chosen community life. How can
he leave and go establish a parish in the United States without the permission
of his Superior?

At issue, though, is the safety of any priests who accept the Patriarch's
request to return. Chaldeans and other Christians areunder attack by the
militant Islamic State, which has ruthlessly bombed Chaldean churches,
destroyed monasteries, and driven Chaldeans from their ancestral land.
Incidents such as theshooting deaths of a priest and three deacons in Mosul
and the 2010 invasion of Baghdad's Our Lady of Salvation Syrian Catholic
Church, in which three priests and 50 worshippers were murdered by terrorists,
demonstrate a sad reality: Muslim extremists will no longer permit the
Catholic Church to minister openly in many regions of the country. Any
priests who return to the country are likely to be summarily executed.

In August 2014,Catholic News Agency quoted Fr. Nawar, a priest originally
from Nineveh who has been living and studying in Rome. Today the story
of Christianity is finished in Iraq, Father Nawar said. People cant
stay in Iraq because there is death for whoever stays.

Here in the United States, tens of thousands of Chaldean Catholics have
relocated from Iraq to escape persecution. In the Chaldean Catholic Eparchy
of St. Peter The Apostle, which covers 19 western states, there are only
14 Chaldean priests to serve an estimated 50,000 Chaldean Christians. Patriarch
Sako's decree would remove ten of them from ministry, effective immediately.

The Eparchy of St. Peter The Apostle, based in San Diego, has sent several
appeals to Patriarch Sako. but has received no response. On October 22,
when the priests named in last month's decree were ordered to return or
cease their priestly work, an emergency appeal was filed with the Vatican.
The priests are now permitted to exercise their ministry, as they await
a response from Pope Francis.

Southern California Public Radio 89.33 KPCC reports that Southern California
is home to an estimated 50,000 Chaldeans, mostly in San Diego County. Community
leaders and a Chaldean bishop have been lobbying Congress, the State Department,
even the United Nations to open the door to more Chaldean refugees.

Mark Arabo is National Spokesperson for the Chaldean Church in the United
States, which includes about 250,000 Chaldeans, and is also a member of
the church in El Cajon led by Fr. Noel Gorgis, one of the suspended priests.
Arabo disagreed with Patriarch Sakocalling His Beatitude's decree a complete
tragedy. Many of the priests, he explained, have been in this country
for 20 years and have American citizenship. What the Patriarch is doing
is inhumane, it is not even Christian, Arabo insisted. We are going
to do everything in our power to make sure these ten priests do not return
like cattle to the slaughter in Iraq.

Arabo worried that a suspension of these priests would force the church
to cut some services and could affect prayer groups, confession and baptisms.
He added that Sako's recalling of the priests shows the "growing disconnect
between himself and our people."

Despite Patriarch Sako's decree, it appears that at least for now it
may be impossible for clergy to return to Iraq and to resume priestly ministry.
They could return and become martyrs for the faith, inspiring others by
their fearless example in the face of adversity. But is this the mission
to which they are called? Or are they needed to serve the many thousands
here in the U.S. who also want spiritual direction and leadership?

Kathy Schifferis a freelance writer and speaker, and her blog Seasons
of Grace can be found on the Catholic Portal at Patheos

Benedict XVI has said that dialogue with other religions is no substitute
for spreading the Gospel to non-Christian cultures, and warned against
relativistic ideas of religious truth as lethal to faith. He also said
the true motivation for missionary work is not to increase the churchs
size but to share the joy of knowing Christ.

The retired popes words appeared in written remarks to faculty members
and students at Romes Pontifical Urbanian University, which belongs to
the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. Archbishop Georg Ganswein,
prefect of the papal household and personal secretary to the Pope Emeritus,
read the 1,800-word message aloud on October 21, at a ceremony dedicating
the universitys renovated main lecture hall to the retired pope.

The speech is one of a handful of public statements, including an interview
and a published letter to a journalist, that Benedict XVI has made since
he retired in February 2013.

The risen Lord instructed his apostles, and through them his disciples
in all ages, to take his word to the ends of the earth and to make disciples
of all people, Benedict XVI wrote.

But does that still apply? many inside and outside the Church ask
themselves today. Is mission still something for today? Would it not be
more appropriate to meet in dialogue among religions and serve together
the cause of world peace? The counter-question is: Can dialogue substitute
for mission?

He continued: In fact, many today think religions should respect each
other and, in their dialogue, become a common force for peace. According
to this way of thinking, it is usually taken for granted that different
religions are variants of one and the same reality. The question of truth,
that which originally motivated Christians more than any other, is here
put inside parentheses. It is assumed that the authentic truth about God
is in the last analysis unreachable and that at best one can represent
the ineffable with a variety of symbols. This renunciation of truth seems
realistic and useful for peace among religions in the world.

It is nevertheless lethal to faith. In fact, faith loses its binding
character and its seriousness, everything is reduced to interchangeable
symbols, capable of referring only distantly to the inaccessible mystery
of the divine.

The Pope Emeritus added that some religions, particularly tribal religions,
are waiting for the encounter with Jesus Christ, but that this encounter
is always reciprocal. Christ is waiting for their history, their wisdom,
their vision of the things. This encounter can also give new life to Christianity,
which has grown tired in its historical heartlands, he wrote.

We proclaim Jesus Christ not to procure as many members as possible
for our community, and still less in order to gain power. We speak of him
because we feel the duty to transmit that joy which has been given to us.

An Abducted Yazidi Woman Describes the Horrors of the
Islamic State

"I want to die so my suffering will come to an end"October 22, 2014 -Arbil/Aleteia (aleteia.org/ar)  A Yazidi-Iraqi woman
abducted by the Islamic State was able to make contact with a BBC correspondent
and said that the conditions under which she was being held were deplorable.
She added that we are still wearing the same summer clothing we were wearing
when we were abducted and with winter coming on conditions will worsen.
My children were like angels, but the horrible conditions within which
we are living currently have completely changed them. It is as though they
are no longer children or human beings anymore.
She further stated that, The children under twelve years of age are
left with their mothers, but the children older than thirteen are taken
with the men and no one knows exactly what happens to them. We dont know
anything about them. With regards to the girls, even the younger ones are
being taken.

We were unable to ascertain the name of the woman or where she was being
held because she feared for her safety. She was only able to speak by telephone;
her only line connecting her with the outside world, because she was able
to hide from her captors. She added, We have been waiting for more than
two months for someone to come rescue us, but it has been in vain. I want
to die so my suffering will come to an end.
Yazidi activists estimate that the number of children who have been
abducted by IS fighters from various villages throughout the Nineveh Province
is approximately 1,500.
Many of them are suffering from dehydration, skin diseases and psychological
problems after spending more than two months in captivity. They are accompanied
by more than 3,000 women and men who are protecting them in schools, prisons,
and apartments in various villages. This has all occurred since ISIS took
control of a vast area of northern Iraq.

Noreen Channu, a Yazidi activist in a group that calls itself Yazidis
Around the World said that they were able to gather data about the whereabouts
of Islamic State fighters by speaking with people who had escaped from
captivity and through other means as well.
Channu added that Iraqi, Kurdish, American and British authorities
have informed us of the location where many of the captives are being held,
but as of yet no one has done anything to rescue them.

The activist mentioned that she had been in contact with some of the
captives via telephone, but has lost contact with many of them over time.
Members of the Islamic State may have found out that they had telephones.
She also lost contact with some young girls and women after they were
sold and taken out of Iraq to countries like Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan.
Channu expressed her feelings of frustration because the world is sitting
idly by while atrocities are being committed against the Yazidi minority.
Amina Said, a former Yazidi member of Parliament is assisting efforts
to draw the International Communitys attention to the plight of the Yazidis.
She said, The International Community is intervening in dozens of countries
to fight against the Islamic State. They are arming the Iraqi military
and the Peshmerga in Kurdistan for this purpose. However, to date no one
who has been abducted has been freed. We hope that they will quickly rescue
them because dozens of them have died and have been sold.

ON THE UNREASONABLE CHARACTER OF HOMOSEXUAL ACTS

by Martin Rhonheimer
I wish here to investigate the central idea of the truth of sexuality,
the idea that human sexuality possesses a truth proper to it, which without
relativizing or devaluing its intrinsic goodness as affective and sensual
experience, nevertheless transcends and integrates it into the whole of
the spiritual dimension of the human person. [ ]

The truth of sexuality is marriage: union between persons in which the
inclination is lived as a preferential choice  "dilectio"  and in which
it becomes love, mutual gift, indissoluble communion open to the transmission
of life, and friendship in view of a community of life that endures until
death. It is in this way, in this specific context  that of conjugal chastity
which includes the good of the other person and transcends itself toward
the common good of the human species  that sexual activity, including
its affective, impulsive and sensual dimensions, is also seen as an authentic
("bonum rationis", something intrinsically reasonable and good thus good
for reason. [ ]

Sexual acts  i.e. sexual intercourse  and sexual activity, as reasonable
acts, are therefore necessarily and by their very nature the expression
of a love in the context (ethical context) of the transmission of life.

Sexual activity that in principle excludes this transmission of life,
whether as intentionally procured (as with contracepted heterosexual acts)
or structurally given (as with homosexual acts), is not a good for reason
precisely as sexual activity. It falls to the level of a mere good of the
senses, a truncated affectivity, structurally reduced to the sensual, instinctive
and impulsive level.

Such a sensual reduction of love and affectivity is also logically possible
with heterosexual acts, even apart from contraception, and in marriage.
In the case of homosexuality, however, this reduction is not only intentional
and voluntarily sought, but structural, i.e. given by the very fact that
it involves two persons of the same sex who, for biological reasons and
by their very nature, cannot be procreative.

The ultimate cause of this reduction is in the fact that we are dealing
 as a result of conscious and free choices  with a sexuality without
a task or without a mission, a sexual inclination that does not transcend
itself toward an intelligible human good beyond the sexual activity itself,
and that cannot therefore become the expression of love between persons
and mutual gift. Experience  including that of practicing homosexuals,
often deeply anguished  confirms this. [ ]

With homosexual acts, therefore, the separation between sexuality and
procreation is structural. This is why its acts are structurally non-reasonable
and therefore morally non-justifiable by their very physical structure
or nature. They are what moralists have traditionally called a sin "contra
naturam", even if such acts can seem reasonable and justifiable in the
context of an affectivity oriented toward the satisfaction of the sensual
impulse.

The separation of sexuality and procreation in contemporary culture
makes the understanding of the intrinsic non-reasonableness of homosexual
acts more difficult. This culture of separating sexuality and procreation,
which is encouraged at the global level by easy access to contraceptives,
is now the norm; it is the distinctive character of that sexual revolution
that is a true and proper cultural revolution. One consequence of this
revolution is the increasing loss of the understanding of marriage as a
project of life, and more specifically, as a project with a social transcendence,
capable of uniting two persons who look to the future with the common objective
of founding a family that will endure through time.

Homosexual unions cannot define themselves as families in this sense,
even if children are present, either as adopted or as made through reproductive
technologies. Such families formed by same-sex couples are only an imitation
of a true family, which is a project carried out by two persons through
their love and their reciprocal gift in the fullness of their bodily and
spiritual being. The families of homosexual couples can never realize
this project of spousal love at the service of life because the love that
is at the basis of these same-sex unions  that is, the sexual acts that
claim to be acts of spousal love  are structurally and necessarily, based
on their very nature, infecund.

Different, certainly, is the case of a heterosexual couple which, for
reasons independent of the wills of the partners, cannot have children
and for this reason adopt one or more children. In this case, in fact,
their union is by its nature  that is, structurally  generative. For
this reason the intentional structure and moral character of the act of
adoption also changes, taking on the value of an alternative way of realizing
something to which conjugal union is by its nature predisposed, and in
their case is only "per accidens" impeded. The infecundity of such heterosexual
couples is not from the nature and structure of their acts but unintentional
("praeter intentionem"); their infecundity is, therefore, not the result
of moral disorder so their act of adoption is able to participate in the
structure of the intrinsic fecundity of marital love.

The same cannot be said about a couple formed by persons of the same
sex: in this case the infecundity is structural and intentionally assumed
through the free choice to form precisely this kind of union. In this case
there is no link between authentic marital love and adoption, since the
former  a marital love that includes an openness to the procreative dimension
 is completely absent. For this reason the act of adoption in a homosexual
union is purely an imitation  a counterfeit  of that to which marriage
is predisposed by its nature.

A final observation: any judgment on homosexuality and its intrinsic
non-reasonableness and immorality refers, obviously, solely to sexual acts
between persons of the same sex. This does not include a judgment on the
mere disposition to such acts which, even if it is considered unreasonable,
to the extent that it is not acted upon does not have the character of
a moral error.

Even less are we dealing with a judgment on persons with homosexual
tendencies, on their personal dignity or their moral character. These are
undermined not by tendencies but by free choices to engage in homosexual
acts and to adopt a corresponding lifestyle. Precisely these are morally
erroneous, and thus evil, choices which alienate their agents from the
true human good.

A non-practicing homosexual, on the other hand, who abstains from the
practice of homosexual acts, can live the virtue of chastity and all of
the other virtues, attaining even the highest degree of holiness.

__________

St. John Paul the Prophet and the SynodSeeing the Synod through the lens of "Theology of the Body"

TOM HOOPES

day, Oct. 22, will come in the wake of the 2014 Synod on the Family.

John Paul was a prophet on marriage and the family. He knew exactly
the importance of Church teachings on marriage, and he will be praying
powerfully for those teachings to transform the world.

Here are five of the Popes prophetic teachings on the family that are
even more relevant today than they were when he pronounced them.

1. Destroy the family and you destroy civilization.Said St. John Paul II: As the family goes, so goes the nation and
so goes the whole world in which we live.
To St. John Paul II, everything depends on the family. The family is
where we learn faith. The family is where we learn to love. The family
is where we learn our nations culture.

The family is not just the foundation of society to John Paul II  its
the glue that holds it together.

In Centesimus Annus , he wrote that the individual today
is often suffocated between two extremes represented by the state and the
marketplace. It is primarily families that strengthen the social fabric,
preventing society from becoming an anonymous and impersonal mass, as unfortunately
often happens today.

To a bureaucrat, we are a social security number. To a merchant, we
are a dollar sign. We are of infinite dignity and value, to be loved unconditionally
 but only our families ever come close to treating us that way.

2.Our bodies have a meaning.Said St. John Paul II: Families will be the first victims of the evils
that they have done no more than note with indifference.

The new fad today is to reinvent ourselves radically without reference
to who we are made to be. But St. John Paul II had a deep understanding
of the danger posed by refusals to take man as he is found.

His Theology of the Body saw clues embedded by God in our very bodies
that show the enormous importance of marriage and the family. Fundamentally,
John Pauls Theology of the Body is the recognition that we are built for
each other  man for woman and vice versa.

His nuptial meaning of the body describes not just the sexual compatibility
of man and woman but also the emotional and psychological complementarity
of feminine genius and those sons of Adam who was not meant to be alone.
Only by being true to our bodies can we become who we are in his
memorable phrase.

3. Contraception changes relationships for the worst.Said St. John Paul II: The two dimensions of conjugal union, the unitive
and the procreative, cannot be artificially separated without damaging
the deepest truth of the conjugal act itself.

The results of the contraceptive revolution have been devastating to
families. Thinkers like Mary Eberstadt and Janet Smith has done an excellent
job of showing how it has led to divorce, abortion and a host of other
ills.

And it stands to reason: the more sex is reduced to recreation on the
one hand, or a physical urge on the other, the less it speaks to the real
needs of couples. In often frank language, St. John Paul saw especially
the importance of the moment in which a man and a woman, uniting in one
flesh, can become parents.

At that moment, he said, The two dimensions of conjugal union, the
unitive and the procreative, cannot be artificially separated without damaging
the deepest truth of the conjugal act itself.

4. Witnessing to the family life is a primary call of the New Evangelization.Said St. John Paul II: To bear witness to the inestimable value of
the indissolubility and fidelity of marriage is one of the most precious
and most urgent tasks of Christian couples in our time.

The greatest answer to the worlds questions and concerns about marriage
and family, said St. Pope John Paul II, was to see it witnessed and lived
by Catholics.

He used the word witness 40 times in his groundbreaking document on
the Family in the Modern World.
The only way to win on marriage and family is the hard way. No one
will follow Church teaching unless each of us becomes a genuine witness
a credible witness a witness of love a witness of faith  a
witness of a life lived in conformity with the divine law in all its aspects.

5. Threats to the family are as urgent as threats to peace.At the start of a millennium which began with the terrifying attacks
of September 11, 2001 one cannot recite the Rosary without feeling caught
up in a clear commitment to advancing peace, said St. John Paul II, then
added, A similar need for commitment and prayer arises in relation to
another critical contemporary issue: the family.

It was when Pope John Paul II made that urgent call that my own
family, which had been spotty at best at praying the rosary, began to do
so in earnest. This October, the month of the rosary, is a great time to
redouble our efforts.
St. John Paul was indeed a prophet: Lose the family and you lose personal
identity, real couple love and solidarity, the love that holds society
together.

Lose the family and you lose everything.

As Cardinal George Pell of Australia said at the close of the Synod,
we are in no danger of losing our rich Catholic teaching on the family.
Our task now is to ask people to pause, pray, and catch their breath.

St. John Paul II, join us in this prayer. Help us be worthy witnesses
of the great and vital truths of the family that you expressed so eloquently
 and so urgently.

The Christian minority in India is under serious threatBhubaneswar, India, Oct 15, 2014 / 12:04 pm (Aid to the Church in Need).-
With the election of Narendra Modi of the Hindu "Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) as prime minister of India the country's secular constitution has
come under threat, a Catholic priest in India has charged.
Father Ajay Kumar Singh, a human rights activist in Kandhamal District
in the East Indian state of Odisha (formerly Orissa), warned of the growing
influence of radical Hindu forces on the Indian subcontinent.
"Especially under threat is the Christian minority because it is rejected
by extremists as alien and because the Christian message is threat to the
caste system," the priest said in an interview with international Catholic
charity Aid to the Church in Need.

According to Father Kumar Singh  who is associated with the Odisha
Forum for Social Action"  the BJP aims to establish a state religion which
excludes the lower castes and all minorities.
"They even want to impose only one language, Sanskrit, even though
hundreds of languages are spoken in India," he continued, adding that the
strength of party and the movement it represents has become the strongest
political force in India, taking many observers, including Church leaders
and their flock, by surprise.
"It is important for us to understand what is happening. As a Church
we must think way beyond the bounds of the individual dioceses; we must
act regionally and nationally in order to find responses to this challenge,
the priest said.
Otherwise Orissa 2008 will be repeated, even worse than then because
we learned no lessons from it, the priest said, referring to August 2008,
when Hindu nationalists attacked villages of Christian dalits or untouchables,
belonging to the lowest caste in the Hindu social hierarchy.

The violence left more than 100 dead, according to the "National Peoples
Tribunal (NPT), an association of human rights activists in Odisha.
According to the NPT, the attacks had been prepared well in advance:
more than 600 villages were looted, with 5,600 houses, 295 churches and
13 schools destroyed. More than 54,000 people were made homeless, and of
this number 30,000 have not been able to return to their villages.
Around 10,000 children were robbed of the possibility to attend school
because they were forced to flee and were displaced. Some 2,000 Christians
were compelled to deny their faith. Numerous women were raped. Many of
the perpetrators of the violencethough they are known to authoritieshave
never been charged.

Father Kumar Singh is afraid history might repeat itself.
Aid to the Church in Need is an international Catholic charity under
the guidance of the Holy See, providing assistance to the suffering and
persecuted Church in more than 140 countries.www.churchinneed.org (USA);
www.acnuk.org (UK); www.aidtochurch.org (AUS); www.acnireland.org (IRL);
www.acn-aed-ca.org (CAN) www.acnmalta.org (Malta)

BBC political correspondent Martina Purdy quits journalism
to become a nunPUBLISHED: 07:46 GMT, 15 October 2014

One of the BBC's top political reporters has given up her 25-year career
in journalism to join a convent of nuns called the Adoration Sisters.

Northern Ireland political reporter Martina Purdy, who has been with
the BBC for 15 years, announced her decision to become a nun and focus
on 'new challenges' last week.
She was then photographed at the weekend dressed casually on her way
to Sunday Mass at St Peter's Cathedral, Belfast, alongside six members
of the Adoration Convent.
In a statement posted on her Twitter page, she said: 'I've been a journalist
now for almost 25 years, 15 of them at the BBC.

'It has been an immensely rewarding profession and I'm very grateful
for all the support I've had over many years from colleagues, family, contacts
and friends.
Ms Purdy added: 'I know many people will not understand this decision.
It is a decision that I have not come to lightly, but it is one that I
make with love and great joy. I ask for prayers as I embark on this path
with all humility, faith and trust.'

She went on to ask that the privacy of the Adoration Sisters - a self-described
'contemplative community' which makes altar breads - be respected as she
faces 'the new challenges' of her life.
She went on to offer her thanks via Twitter to those who had shown
their support for her decision
After which she added she wouldn't be giving a 'running commentary'
on her new lifestyle

Following the announcement she tweeted: 'Thanks all for your generosity
- from those of my faith, other faiths, those trying to find Him, those
trying to ignore Him. God bless you.'
And in a final tweet, she added: 'I'm not planning a running commentary
- but I'm truly overwhelmed. x.'
Ms Purdy, who was born in Belfast but brought up in Canada, joined
the BBC Northern Ireland in 1999 after working as a newspaper journalist.
She was known as a familiar figure in the Northern Ireland Assembly
at Stormont, covering Northern Irish politics for television and radio.Kathleen
Carragher, head of news for BBC Northern Ireland, paid tribute to Ms Purdy,
saying: 'We will miss her wit and wisdom. I wish her happiness and fulfilment
in her new life.'

Yoga Banned at Austria School for Biblical ReasonsFriday, October 10, 2014

A primary school in Austria has dropped yoga classes for children after
a mother argued Yoga goes against Christian teachings.
Ingrid Karner taught yoga to students once a month at the school in
Dechantskirchen.
But she told the Kleine Zeitung newspaper she was told to stop the
classes after a complaint.

"All I heard was that according to the Bible yoga should not be allowed
and it would lead the children in the wrong direction," Karner said.

The school principal told a newspaper no parents had complained when
the courses started this year.
A school inspector says schools should not offer anything linked to
"esoteric" practices.Yoga began in Hinduism and Buddhism but has been widely
accepted in modern society.

Six miles from ISIS: A shockingly brave priest returns
to IraqBy Elise Harris

Vatican City, Oct 9, 2014 / 04:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Father Ghazwan
Yousif Baho had the option to stay in Italy when he recently accompanied
an elderly Iraqi couple to an audience with Pope Francis.

But he has decided to go back because he can't leave his people.

One of them told me, 'Father, I saw you always from afar, but this
week I found out who you are, and it has given me so much strength (to
know) that you are a priest in the middle of your people,' he told CNA
Oct. 4.

Sometimes I thought about leaving Iraq, but now I say, 'I don't leave
my village anymore.'

Fr. Baho is the parish priest in Alqosh, Iraq as well as a guest professor
at the Pontifical Urbanianum University in Rome, where he teaches two months
out of the year. While in Rome, he also serves as pastor in the city's
Joachim and Ann parish. He was present in Rome to accompany an elderly
Iraqi couple, Mubarack and Agnese Hano, to an audience Pope Francis held
with elderly and grandparents on Sept. 28. He will return to Alqosh, which
sits only 10 kilometers  around six miles  from the ISIS-controlled city
of Qaraqosh, this weekend. The militant Sunni Islamist organization was
among the rebels fighting in the Syrian civil war. In June it spread its
operations to Iraq, taking control of Mosul and swaths of territory in
the country's north and west, as well as in northern Syria.

It has now declared a caliphate, which is defined as an Islamic state
controlled by a religious and political leader known as a caliph or successor
to Muhammad. In Syria on Aug. 13, ISIS seized a string of towns located
northeast of Aleppo and near the Turkish border, including Akhtarin. On
Aug. 11 it had seized the Iraqi town of Jalawla, located 90 miles northeast
of Baghdad in Diyala province. All non-Sunni persons have been persecuted
by the Islamic State  tens of thousands of Christians, Yazidis, and Shia
Muslims have fled the territory. Since the night of Aug. 6 when ISIS forces
entered the city of Qaraqosh, formerly referred to as the Christian capital
of Iraq, many have fled and are living in tents as refugees in camps, the
priest noted. Despite having lived in these circumstances for two months,
many have maintained a strong faith, he explained. Ive met very few people
who had lost faith and hope. So many suffered, so the sorrowful mysteries
for us a daily act. But despite all this suffering, Ive seen very few
people whove lost the faith.

When ISIS attacked the city of Mosul, 40 kilometers from Alqosh, many
lost everything including their homes, their jobs, their money and even
their wedding rings, which militants would take from persons fleeing the
city. However, when he met with families they would tell me Father, we
are safe and all our children are with us. The rest will come later. But
we thank God that the Lord has saved us. We have lost everything, but we
are saved. I heard this phrase from so many people. Desperate, but they
never lost their faith. And these sorrowful mysteries of the rosary for
us are a daily reality, but they also give us the strength to keep going.

Fr. Baho then recalled how he and a few of the others who had fled the
city as ISIS approached the nearby Qaraqosh returned after a week to ring
the bells of their parish, which had been silent since the Aug. 6 attack.
After a week of this silence of all the bells of the churches on the plains
of Nineveh, and they still are in many villages, with a group of guys from
the parish, we challenged the fear and we went (back) into the village.
The priest, along with 20 or 30 people who were on guard that night, entered
Alqosh again on Sept. 15, where they rang the bells of the parish once
again and celebrated Mass. For me that Mass was a culmination of Christian
faith, and with so much pain, with so much fear, we finished the Mass and
we returned back to the Kurdish area, Fr. Baho said.

On the way back, Father said he saw one young man that was with him
when he initially fled. This young man told him: Father, I saw you always
from afar, but this week I found out who you are, and it has given me so
much strength (to know) that you are a priest in the middle of your people.
Father also said he had written to his fellow priest from his parish in
Rome about what they were planning to do: Today I need to ring the bells
that for a week havent sounded. I have to do this, even if its last time
the bells ring, I will do it.

As they were entering Alqosh to celebrate the Mass, the priest recounted
how one young man told him Father, today we see you a little stronger.
Referring to how his fellow priest had promised to pray a rosary for them,
he responded that Yes, there are people who pray for us, even if they
are far, they are united to us in prayer. For me this was the day of
salvation. From there the people began to have more hope. Different families
returned to the city. Also, the war is 10 kilometers from the city, but
the people returned. So when I return Ill go there, to the parish next
week, he said.

In his homily during the Mass, Fr. Baho explained how often times we
seek miracles in order know whether or not God is with us, but that the
great miracle happened for them when more than 100,000 people escaped at
the same time and all managed to get out sane and safe. It was an exodus,
exactly an exodus. The third exodus here. The Lord is truly with us. This
is a true miracle, the priest continued, observing how when they all fled
from the Plains of Nineveh around 10 p.m. the only thing visible were the
lights of the other cars. If you can imagine 100,000 people leaving together
and not even an accident happens, this is a true miracle.

Many who attended the courageous Mass in Alqosh filmed the event, the
video of which was presented to Pope Francis by Fr. Baho and the Hano couple
during their encounter with him in his audience with the elderly. This
also gave us the strength, he made us feel that he is very close to us,
and he has said many times, and he said it that day, 'I am always close
to you. I hear your sufferings and I am united with you in prayer.' The
sounding of the Alqosh church bells in St. Peters Square in front of the
more than 4,000 people present that day, as well as their broadcast to
millions throughout the world, gave witness to the Christian presence in
Iraq for more than 2,000 years, the priest said. So that voice that they
wanted to silence rang out even stronger. And this also gave hope.

Full transcript of Pope's in-flight interview from
Korea

By Alan Holdren and Andrea Gagliarducci

Pope Francis speaks with journalists on the papal plane on the return
flight to Rome August 18, 2014. Credit: Alan Holdren/CNA.
Aboard the papal plane, Aug 18, 2014 / 04:30 pm (CNA).- Speaking to
journalists aboard the Aug. 18 flight to Italy from South Korea, Pope Francis
said he supports international intervention in Iraq and is willing to go
to there personally if it will help end the violence against Christians
and other religious minorities.

He also addressed topics ranging from peace efforts between Israel and
Palestine, future papal visits, to his personal schedule, relationship
with Benedict XVI and life at the Vatican.

Below is a full transcript of the discussion between Pope Francis and
journalists during Tuesday's flight.

Korean journalist Sun Yin Park, Yonhap press agency:

In the name of the Korean journalists and our people, I wish to thank
you for your visit. You have brought happiness to many people in Korea
and thank you for your encouragement for the education of our country.
Holy Father, during your visit to Korea, you have reached out to the family
of victims of the Sewol ferry disaster and consoled them. Two questions.
One, what did you feel when you met them? Two, were you not concerned your
actions could be misinterpreted politically?

Pope Francis:

When you find yourself in front of human sorrow, you do what your heart
brings you to do. Today, they will say, 'oh, he's done this because he
has political intention,' or that other thing. But you can say anything.
But, you think about these men and women, mothers and fathers, who lost
their children. Brother and sisters who have lost brothers and sisters to
the great sorrow of such a catastrophe. My heart I'm a priest, you know,
and being able to come close like that is the first thing. I know that
the consolation I can give with a word of mine isn't a remedy, it doesn't
give new life to their dead but the in these moments human proximity gives
us strength. There is solidarity. I remember that, as archbishop of Buenos
Aires, I lived two of these catastrophes.

One, was a dance hall where you could hear pop music, 193 died (he refers
to Cromagnon disco). And then, another time a catastrophe with a
train. I think 120 died. In that time, I felt the same, to come close to
make them strong. And if we in these sad moments come close to each other,
we help each other so much. And then on the other question and then I'd
like to say something more. I put this on (the yellow lace from the victims'
relatives). After half a day of wearing it, I took it on for solidarity
with them, eh. Someone came up and said, it's better to take it off, eh.
You must be neutral (there is a controversy about the responsibility of
the tragedy: relatives of victims have touched on government corruption
which led to building a ship with sub-par material). But, listen with human
sorrow you can't be neutral. It's what I feel. Thanks for this question.
Thanks.

As you know, not long ago the U.S. military forces have started bombing
terrorists in Iraq to prevent a genocide. To protect the future of the
minorities, I think also of the Catholics under your guidance, do you approve
of this American bombing (campaign)?

Pope Francis:

Thanks for such a clear question. In these cases where the is an unjust
aggression, I can only say that it is licit to stop the unjust aggressor.
I underscore the verb stop. I don't saying to bomb or make war, (but)
stop it. The means with which it can be stopped should be evaluated. To
stop the unjust aggressor is licit. But we also have to have memory, as
well, eh. How many times under this excuse of stopping the unjust aggressor
the powers have taken control of nations. And, they have made a true war
of conquest. One single nation cannot judge how you stop this, how you
stop an unjust aggressor. After the Second World War, there was the idea
of the United Nations. It must be discussed there and said 'there's an
unjust aggressor, it seems so How do we stop it? Only that, nothing more.
Secondly, the minorities. Thanks for the word because they speak to me
of the Christians, poor Christians  it is true, they suffer  and the
martyrs  and yes, there are so many martyrs  but here there are men and
women, religious minorities, and not all Christian and all are equal before
God, no? Stopping the unjust aggressor is a right that humanity has but
it is also a right of the aggressor to be stopped so he doesn't do evil.

French journalist Jean Louis de la Vaiessiere, Agence France Press:

As Cardinal Filoni and the Dominican superior Bruno Cadoré, Would
you be ready to support a military intervention against the jihadists in
Iraqi territory? Another question, do you think of someday being able to
go to Iraq, maybe to Kurdistan to sustain the Christian refugees and pray
with them in the land where they've lived for 2000 years?

Pope Francis:

Thank you. I have been not long ago with the governor of Kurdistan.
He had a very clear thought on the situation and how to find a solution
but it was before these last aggressions. And the first question I have
responded to. I am only in agreement in the fact that when there is an
unjust aggressor that he is stopped. Sorry, I forgot about that. Yes, I
am available but I think I can say this. When we heard with my collaborators
this situation of the religious minorities and also the problems in that
moment of Kurdistan which couldn't receive so many people. It's a problem.
It's understood. They couldn't, right? It can't be done and we've thought
of so many things. We wrote first of all a communique that Fr. Lombardi
wrote in my name. Then, this statement was sent out to all of the nunciatures
so that it might be communicated to the governments. Then, we sent a letter
to the secretary general of the United Nations. And so many things and
in the end we said, eh, sending a personal envoy (who was) Cardinal Filoni.
And in the end we have said, and if it were necessary when we return from
Korea we can go there. It was one of the possibilities. This was the response.
And in this moment, I am ready and right now it isn't the most, the best
thing to do but I am disposed for this.

Italian journalist Fabio Zavattaro, Rai Television:

You were the first pope to fly over China. The telegram that you sent
to the Chinese president was received without negative comments. Are we
passing on to a possible dialogue and would you like to go to China?

Vatican Spokesman Father Federico Lombardi: I can announce that we are
now in Chinese airspace so the question is pertinent.

Pope Francis: When we were about to enter into Chinese airspace I was
in the cockpit with the pilot. One of them, showed me the registry. Anyway,
he said, there were 10 minutes left before entering Chinese airspace. we
have ask for authorization. You always ask. 'Is it normal to ask for permission
in every nation? Yes.' I heard how they asked authorization and how
they responded. I was a witness to this. Then the pilot said, now we send
the telegram. But I don't know how they will have done it by like that.
So, then i said goodbye to them and went back to my seat and i prayed a
lot for that beautiful and noble Chinese people. a wise people. i think
of the great Chinese sages, a history of science and knowledge. Also we
Jesuits have a history there, also Father (Matteo) Ricci. And, all thees
things came up to my mind. Do I have a wish to go.? Certainly, tomorrow.
Yes. We respect the Chinese people. It's just that the Church ask for freedom
for its role and for its work. This is another condition. But, do not forget
that fundamental letter for the Chinese problem which was the letter sent
to the Chinese by Pope Benedict XVI. That letter today is current. Rereading
it is good for you. The holy see is always open to being in contact, always,
because it has a real esteem for the Chinese people.

Spanish journalist Paloma Garcia Ovejero, Radio Cope:

The next trip will be Albania, then maybe Iraq and the Filippines and
Sri Lanka. But where will you go in 2015? I'll tell you also just in case,
you know that in Avila and Alba de Tormes there are so many expectations,
can they still hope?

Pope Francis: Yes, yeah. The madam president of Korea in perfect Spanish
told me hope is the last thing to go. That's what she said. Hoping for
the unification of Korea, no. That's what she told me. We can hope, no?
But it has not been decided...

Journalist: and after Mexico?

Pope Francis:

Now I'll explain. This year, Albania is planned. Some say that the Pope
has a style of starting things from the peripheries. But, I'm going to
Albania for two important reasons. First, because they were able to make
a government  and let's think of the Balkans, eh  a government of national
unity among Muslims, Orthodox and Catholics with an inter-religious council
that has helped a lot and is balanced. And this is good it is harmonized
it. The presence of the Pope to all peoples but you can work well, eh.
I've that it could be a true aid to that noble people. I've also thought
of the history of Albania, which of all the nations in the former Yugoslavia
was the only one that in its constitution had the practical atheism. If
you went to Mass, it was unconstitutional. And then, one of their ministers
told me that - and I want to be precise in the number  1820 churches were
destroyed, orthodox and catholic, in that time. And then other churches
were made into cinemas and others dance halls. I felt like I needed to
go. It's close, done in a day.

Next year, I would like to go to Philadelphia for the encounter of families.
I was also invited by the president of the United States to the American
congress and by the secretary general of the United Nations in New York.
Maybe the three cities together, no? Mexico. The Mexicans would like me
to go to Our Lady of Guadalupe. And we could take advantage of that, but
it's not certain.

And then Spain. The monarchs have invited me. And the episcopate has
invited me. But it's raining invitations to go to Spain, also Santiago
di Compostela. But maybe, and I won't say more, because it isn't decided,
to go in the morning to Avila and Alba de Tormes and return in the afternoon.
It would be possible, yes, but it's not decided. And this is the response.
Thank you.

German journalist from KNA:

What type of relationship is there between you and Benedict XVI? Is
there an habitual exchange of opinions and ideas? Is there a common project
after this encyclical?

Pope Francis:

We see each other. Before leaving I went to see him. He, two weeks prior,
had sent me an interesting text and he asked me an opinion. We have a normal
relationship because I go back to this idea and maybe a theologian doesn't
like it. But, I think that the pope emeritus is not an exception. After
so many centuries, he's the first emeritus and let's think that if i am
aged and don't have the strength, but it was a beautiful gesture of nobility
and also humility and courage. But, I think that 70 years ago also the
bishops emeritus were an exception. They didn't exist. Today, the bishops
emeritus are an institution. I think that the pope emeritus is already
an institution. Why? Our lives are getting longer and at a certain age
there is not the capacity to govern well, because the body tires and health
perhaps is good but there is the capacity to carry forward all of the problems
like those in the governance of the church. I think that Pope Benedict
made this gesture of popes emeritus. I repeat that maybe some theologian
would say this isn't just, but i think like this. The centuries will tell
if it's like this or not, we'll see, but if you can to say to me, 'but
do you think that one day if you don't feel like it, will you go on?' But,
I would do the same. I would do the same. I will pray, but I would do the
same. He opened a door that is institutional not exceptional. And our relationship
is one of brothers, truly, but I've said that it's like having a grandfather
at home for the wisdom. He has a wisdom with his nuances and it does me
well to hear. He encourages me a lot. This is the relationship we have.

Japanese journalist Yoshinori Fukushima:

Your Holiness, Pope Francis, first of all many thanks for this first
visit to Asia. During this visit, you met people who have suffered. What
did you feel when you greeted the seven 'comfort women' at mass this morning.
And regarding the suffering of people, as in Korea there were hidden Christians
in Japan and next year will be the 150th anniversary of their coming out
(after years of hiding, editor note  see my previous email ). Would it
be possible to pray for them together with you in Nagasaki? Thanks.

Pope Francis:

It would be wonderful. I was invited, eh, both by the government and
the episcopate I was invited. But suffering. You go back to one of the
first questions. The Korean nation is a people that has not lost its dignity.
It was a people invaded and humiliated, it has gone through wars and been
divided with so much suffering. Yesterday, when I went to the encounter
with young people, I visited the museum of the martyrs there. It's terrible
the suffering of these people. Simply to not step on the cross. It's a
pain, an historical suffering. It has the capacity to suffer this nation
and also this is a part of its dignity. Also today, when there were these
elderly ladies in front at Mass. Think that during that invasion they were
girls taken away to the police stations to be taken advantage of. And they
haven't lost their dignity. They were there today showing their faces.
These elderly women, the last of them who remain. It's a people strong
in their dignity. But going back to martyrdom and suffering, also these
women are the fruits of war. Today we are in a world of war. everywhere.
Someone told me, 'you know father that we're in the third world war, but
in pieces. ' He understood this, no? It is a world in war where they commit
these cruelties.

I would like to speak about two words. First, cruelty. Today, children
don't count. Once they spoke of 'conventional warfare.' Today this doesn't
count. I'm not saying that the conventional war is a good thing, but today
the bomb goes and kills the innocent with the culpable with the child and
the women and mother. They kill everyone. But, we need to stop and think
a bit about what level of cruelty we have reached. This should scare us.
And, this is not to create fear. We could make an empirical study. The
level of cruelty today of humanity is a bit scary. Another word on which
I would like to say something in relation with this is torture. Today,
torture is one of the almost ordinary means of acts of intelligence services,
of judicial processes. And, torture is a sin against humanity. It is a
crime against humanity. And, to Catholics I say that torturing a person
is a mortal sin. It is a grave sin. But, it's more. It's a sin against
humanity. Cruelty and torture. I would really like it if you in your media
were to make a reflection of how you see these things today, how is the
level of cruelty of humanity and what you think of torture. I think it
would do us all well to think about this.

American journalist Deborah Ball, Wall Street Journal:

Our question is You have a very, very difficult routine. With very little
rest and little vacation and you make these hard trips. And then in the
last few months we've also seen that you've had to cancel some appointments
anche an event. Should we be concerned about the rhythm you carry?

Pope Francis:

Yes, some have told me this. I took my holidays at home as usual. Once
I read a book and it's interesting. The title was Be happy to be neurotic.
I've also got some neuroses. But you have to treat neuroses well, eh. Give
them mate (an Argentine tea) every day, no? (laughs) One of my neuroses
is that I'm too attached to life. The last time I took a vacation outside
of Buenos Aires with the Jesuit community was in 1975. But then, I always
take holidays. Truly, eh. But at home. I sleep more. I read book that I
like. I listen to music. I pray more. In July and a part of August I did
this and it was good (for me). The other part of the question, it's true
that Ive had to cancel. That is true. The day I had to go to Gemelli Hospital.
10 minutes before. That there, I just couldn't do it. They were certain
very busy days. But I need to be more prudent, you're right.

French journalist Anais Martin, French Radio:

In Rio, when the crowd yelled Francesco, Francesco! you responded
Cristo, Cristo! Today, how do you manage this immense popularity? How
do you live it?

Pope Francis:

I don't know how to tell you. I live it thanking the Lord that his people
are happy. I really do that, hoping the best for the people of God. I live
it as generosity towards the people. On the inside, I try to think of my
sins and my errors not to flatter myself because I know it won't last long.
Two or three years and then (makes a sound and gesture) up to the house
of the of the Father. It's not wise to believe this. I live it as the presence
of the Lord in his people who uses his bishop, the shepherd of the people
to do so many things. I live it more naturally than before. Before I was
a bit scared. Also, it comes to mind not to make errors because you can't
do wrong for the people and all these things.

Italian journalist Francesca Paltracca, RAI Radio:

For the Pope who came from the ends of the world and found himself in
the Vatican, beyond Saint Martha Residence where you have your life and
your choice (to live there)? How does the pope live within the Vatican?
They always ask us this, but how does he move around? Does he take walks?
You go to the cafeteria. This is surprising. So, what type of life do
you have beyond that of St. Martha?

Pope Francis:

I try to be free. There are appointments of the office, of work. But
my life for me is the most normal that I could have. Truly. I would love
to be able to leave but you can't You can't because if you go out the people
come so you can't and that's a reality. But there inside in the St Martha,
I have a normal life of work and rest and chatting. I have a normal life.

Journalist: Don't you feel imprisoned, then?

Pope Francis:

No, no, at the beginning yes. Now some of the walls on the inside have
come down.

Journalist: Which are the walls that have come down?

Pope Francis:

I don't know, the Pope can't For example, to have a laugh. One goes
to the elevator, someone comes because the Pope can't go down in the elevator
alone. But, go back to your post because I'm going down alone! That's how
it is. It's normality. It's a normality.

Argentine journalist:

Holy Father, sorry for this but I have to ask you as part of the Spanish
group from Argentina. I'm going to have to ask you a question that will
exhibit your knowledge. Your team for the first time is the champion of
America. I would like to know how you're living it, how you found out.
They tell me that one of the delegation is coming Wednesday and you're
going to receive him during the general audience.

Pope Francis:

It's true that this is the greatest piece of news after the second place
(of the Argentine national team) in Brazil. I found out here. In Seoul
they told me. Listen, on Wednesday they're coming, eh. They're coming.
And, it's a public audience. For me, San Lorenzo is the team for which
all of my family were fans. My father played basketball for San Lorenzo.
He was a player on the basketball team. And when we were kids, we went
and my mom came with us to the Gasometro (San Lorenzo stadium). I remember
today the season of 1946. A magnificent team that San Lorenzo had. They
came out champions. I live it with joy.

Journalist: Is it a miracle?

Pope Francis:

Miracle? No. (laughs) Miracle, no.

German journalist Juergen Erbacher, German TV:

Holy Father, they have long spoken of an encyclical on ecology. Can
you tell us when it will be released? And, which are the central points?

Pope Francis:

This encyclical. I've spoken a lot with Cardinal Turkson and also with
others and I have asked Cardinal Turkson to bring together all of the contributions.
They arrived. And the week before the trip, no, four days before he delivered
the first draft to me. The first draft is this big (gestures). I'd say
it's a third bigger than Evangelii Gaudium. And that's the first draft.
Now, it's not an easy issue because on the protection of creation and the
study of human ecology, you can speak with sure certainty up to a certain
point then come the scientific hypotheses some of which are rather sure,
others aren't. In an encyclical like this that must be magisterial, it
must only go forward on certainties, things that are sure. If the Pope
says that the center of the universe is the earth and not the sun, he errs
because he says something scientific that isn't right. That's also true
here. We need to make the study, number by number, and I think it will
become smaller. But going to the essence is what we can affirm with certainty.
But, you could say in the notes, in the footnotes, that this is a hypotheses
and this and this. To say it as an information, but not in the body of
the encyclical which is doctrinal and needs to be certain.

Korean journalist Young Hae Ko, Korean daily newspaper:

Thank you so much for your visit to South Korea. I'm going to ask you
two questions. First one is: just before the final mass at the Myeong-dong
Cathedral, you consoled the comfort women there. What thought came to you?
That's my first question and my second question is Pyongyang sees Christianity
as a direct threat to its regime and it's leadership and we know that something
terrible happened to North Korean Christianity but we don't know exactly
what happened. Is there special effort in your mind to change North Korea's
approach to Christianity?

Pope Francis:

The first question. I repeat this. Today, these women were there because
despite all they have suffered they have dignity and they showed their
faces. I have thought also about what I've said a little bit ago about
the sufferings of war, the cruelty brought by a war. These women were taken
advantage of, enslaved, but they are all cruelties. I thought of all of
this. The dignity they have and also how much they've suffered. Suffering
is an inheritance. We say They first fathers of the Church say that the
blood of the martyrs is the seed of Christians. The Korean have planted
a lot. A lot. For coherence, no? You now see the fruit of that planting,
of the martyrs.

On North Korea, I know what is a sufferance. One, I know for sure, that
there are some family members, many family members that cannot reunite
and this is true. This is a suffering of that division of the nation. Today
in the cathedral where I dressed in the adornments of the Mass, there was
a gift they've given me which was a crown of thorns of Christ made with
the iron wire that divides the single Korea. We've got this on the airplane.
It's a gift I'm carrying. The suffering of the division, of a divided family.
As I said yesterday I think, I don't remember, we have a hope. The two
Koreas are siblings and they speak the same language. When you speak the
same language it's because you have the same mother and this gives us hope.
The suffering of division is great and I understand this and I pray that
it ends.

American journalist Phil Pulella, Reuters:

I won't stand up because if I do my colleagues from the televisions
will kill me. An observation and a question. As an Italian-American I wanted
to compliment you on your English. You shouldn't be afraid. And if before
you go to America, my homeland, you want to practice I'm available.

(Pope inaudible, making faces about the difficulty of English pronunciation).

Whichever accent you want to use: New Yorker I'm from New York so I'm
available.

So the question is this: You spoke about martyrdom. At what point are
we in the process for the bishop Romero? And what would you like to see
come out of this process?

Pope Francis:

The process was in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, "blocked
for prudence," as they said. Now it is unblocked and has passed to the
Congregation for Saints and it is following the normal path of a process.
It depends on how the postulators move. That's very important to do it
quickly. What I would like is that it's clarified when there is martyr
in odium fidei (for the hatred of the faith) both for confessing the creed
and for doing works that Jesus commands with our neighbor. This is a work
of the theologians, who are studying it. Because behind him is a long list
and there are others. There are others who were killed but weren't of the
same height of Romero. We have to distinguish this theologically, no? For
me, Romero is a man of God. He was a man of God. But we have to run the
process and the Lord has to give his sign there. But, now the postulators
have to move because there are no impediments.

French journalist Celine Noyaux, La Croix:

Seeing the war in Gaza, do you think the prayer for peace organized
in the Vatican last June 8 was a failure?

Pope Francis:

Thanks for the question. That prayer for peace, absolutely was not a
failure! First, the initiative didn't initiative didn't come from me. The
initiative to pray together came from the two presidents. The president
of the state of Israel and the president of the State of Palestine. They
made the restlessness present to me. Then, we wanted to do it there but
we couldn't find the right place because of the political post of each
one it was very strong if we did it in one or another part. The nunciature
was a neutral site, yes, but to get to the nunciature the president of
Palestine had to enter in Israel. The thing wasn't easy. They said, well,
let's do it in the Vatican. We'll go. These two men are men of peace. They
are men who believe in God. They have lived so many nasty things, so many
nasty things. They are convinced that the only path to resolve that situation
is negotiation, dialogue, peace.

Your question now. Was it a failure? No, I think that the door is open.
All four. With the representative which is Bartholomew. I wanted him to
be there as the head of the orthodox, but the ecumenical patriarch of the
orthodox. I don't want to use terms that aren't appreciated by all of the
orthodox. As ecumenical patriarch, it was good that he was with us. But
the door to prayer was opened. We said we needed to pray. It's a gift,
peace is a gift. It's a gift that is merited through our work, but it's
a gift. And to say to humanity that also the path of dialogue which is
important, of dialogue also there is prayer. It's true, after this what
happened has happened. But this is given by circumstances. That encounter
wasn't given by circumstances. It's a fundamental step of the human being,
prayer. Now the smoke of the bombs of the wars don't allow us to see the
door but the door is still open from that moment. As I believe in God,
I believe that God is watching that door and all who pray and ask that
he help us. I like that question. Thanks for having posed it. Thanks.

Fr. Federico Lombardi: Holy Father, thanks a lot. I think you've done
more than an hour of conversation also with us and now it's just that you
go relax a bit with the end of the voyage. Anyway, we know that on this
trip you'll probably go on to Our Lady.

Pope Francis:

From the airport, I'm going to Our Lady. Its a nice thing. I asked
Dr. Giani (the head of the Vatican's gendarme police) to bring roses from
Korea with the colors of Korea, but then outside the nunciature a little
girl came with a bouquet of flowers and we said why don't we take these
flowers from a girl from Korea. That's what we'll do. From the airport,
we'll go to pray a bit there and then onwards to home.

Pope's
Mass: Lord, send us nuns and priests, free from idolatry of power and money

2014-03-03
During his morning Mass at Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis prayed for
vocations, so that young people listen and recognize God's call to service.
The Pope explained that when the heart is full of other interests, joy
turns to sadness, and there is no desire to show faith in Jesus.

Pope Francis: "This is the prayer for vocations. Lord, send us
nuns and send us priests, defend them from idolatry, the idolatry of vanity,
the idolatry of pride, the idolatry of power, the idolatry of money. Our
prayer is to prepare these hearts so that they are able to follow Jesus
closely.

The Pope's missionary prayer intentions for March also deal with vocations,
calling on young people to recognize their vocation for the priesthood
and consecrated life.

Excerpt from the Pope's homily:

"His heart was restless, because the Holy Spirit was pushing him to
get closer to Jesus and to follow him. But his heart was full and he lacked
the courage to empty it. He made his choice: money. His heart was full
of money . But he was not a thief, or a criminal: no, no, no! He was a
good man: he had never stolen! He had never cheated anyone: his money had
been earned honestly. But his heart was imprisoned, it was attached to
money and he lacked the freedom to choose. Money chose for him.

"We must pray so that the hearts of these young people may be emptied,
emptied of other interests and other sentiments, so that they may become
free. This is the prayer for vocations. Lord, send us nuns and send us
priests, defend them from idolatry, the idolatry of vanity, the idolatry
of pride, the idolatry of power, the idolatry of money. This prayer of
ours is to prepare these hearts so that they are able to follow Jesus closely.

"Lord, help these young people so that they may be free, not slaves,
so that their hearts be for You only; so that the call of the Lord can
be heard and can bear fruit. This is the prayer for vocations. We must
pray a lot. But we must be careful: there are vocations. We must help them
to grow, so that the Lord can enter into those hearts and give this indescribable
and glorious joy that belongs to every person who follows Jesus closely.

Firing of Polish doctor over abortion refusal sparks
outcry

By Elise Harris

Rome, Italy, Aug 2, 2014 / 04:02 pm (Catholic News Agency :: CNA).-
The removal one of Poland's top doctors as director of Holy Family hospital
in Warsaw for refusing to perform an abortion has drawn widespread criticism,
with many stating the act violated legal grounds.

The official council in his institution has not found any miscarrying
of procedures or breaking of the rules within the hospital, Catholic advocacy
group member Professor Bogna Obidzinska told CNA July 23.

His decision not to commit the abortion was perfectly within the law,
and he had the right, according to the Freedom of Conscious Act, to refuse.
The only breech they found that he was guilty of was not referring the
lady to another abortion clinic, which in fact was not among his obligations
because he was not the leading doctor of this woman.

A representative of Catholic Voices in Poland and professor at the local
Bogdan Janski academy, Obidzinska offered her comments in wake of the July
23 dismissal of Doctor Bogdan Chazan from his position as director of Warsaws
Holy Family Hospital. Chazan was fired after refusing to perform an abortion
on a deformed baby who had been conceived through in vitro in a fertility
clinic. Catholic Voices is an international organization dedicated to improving
Catholic media representation, and has supported numerous petitions advocating
on the professors behalf, including one on CitizenGo that has obtained
more than 85,000 signatures. Although Polish law protects the right of
mothers to abort babies conceived in rape and those who are fatally ill
up to full term, under the countrys conscience clause no doctor is required
to participate in or perform an abortion. However following his refusal
to perform the requested abortion, Chazans hospital was fined 70,000 zloty,
roughly $23,000. Warsaws vice-mayor removed the physician on the grounds
that he had not used the conscience clause correctly, which states that
if a doctor refuses an abortion, they must refer their patient to another
abortionist.

In Poland, every pregnant woman has a doctor who looks after her throughout
the pregnancy, and for the woman in question that was not professor Chazan,
Obidzinska stated. She actually had her doctor, and that doctor later
on did provide her with the information she asked.

Chazan has been given on a three month grace period  which took effect
immediately after his July 23 dismissal  and he will be required to officially
step down when the hospital appoints a new head. The doctor, who is being
represented by Polish organization Ordo Iuris, has said that he will
launch an appeal, despite the fact that the Warsaw city council stated
their ruling cannot be appealed.

Its very hard to say why all this is happening, because hes a successful
doctor and he wasnt even responsible for the woman, she just consulted
with him, the media representative explained, stating that there could
be some kind of jealousy between clinics due to Chazan's success. Numbers
found in the committee of the city of Warsaw's official report on the clinic
state that the number of patients who have used the clinic have tripled
over the time when Professor Chazan was appointed, which is about 10 years.
There has been only one abortion carried out in this clinic over those
last 12 years, and the number of caesarian sections has dropped (at least)
by half, which means that the quality of the medical care in this hospital
must be truly extraordinary.

In light of this, the professor's dismissal looks quite artificial,
there really seem to be no reasons, Obidzinska continued.

The baby was born, the woman is healthy, and although the baby died
as expected a few days after birth, Professor Chazan actually offered
the woman full care in a special unit of the clinic with hospice and with
special psychological care for her and for her husband, so she was not
just left alone with the problem.

Referring to how Chazan is being called a hypocrite by some due to
a previous change in his stance on abortion, Obidzinska noted that the
hypocrisy of those criticizing Dr. Chazan is awful because he has been
a well-known doctor for saving lives for at least 15 years now.

People, women in Warsaw know that if they want an abortion they
simply dont go to him. This is common knowledge as well, she said. He
is famous for doing extraordinary things in order to save life, and he's
also known and famous for having saved life where other doctors had thought
that pregnancies would naturally end in tragedy, the media representative
observed. He did save lots and lots of babies. If someone goes to ask
him for an abortion that sounds like a provocation. I cant believe that
the woman wouldnt know he would refuse.

Pope meets with Sudanese Christian woman who faced
death sentence for apostasy

July 24, 2014: In this photo provided by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore
Romano, Pope Francis meets Meriam Ibrahim, from Sudan, with her daughter
Maya in her arms, in his Santa Marta residence, at the Vatican. The Sudanese
woman who was sentenced to death in Sudan for refusing to recant her Christian
faith has arrived in Italy along with her family, including the infant
born in prison.AP/L'Osservatore Romano/FileJuly 24, 2014: Meriam Ibrahim disembarks with her children Maya, in
her arms, and Martin, accompanied by Italian deputy Foreign Minister Lapo
Pistelli, after landing at Ciampino's military airport on the outskirts
of Rome. (AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca).

Pope Francis met privately Thursday with Meriam Ibrahim, the Sudanese
Christian woman who faced a death sentence for refusing to renounce her
faith, blessing the woman after she was flown to Italy on an Italian government
jet. The Vatican characterized the visit with Ibrahim, 27, her husband
and their two small children as "very affectionate."

The 30-minute encounter took place just hours after the family landed
at Rome's Ciampino airport, accompanied by an Italian diplomat who helped
negotiate her release, and welcomed by Italy's premier, who hailed it as
a "day of celebration." Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said
the pope "thanked her for her faith and courage, and she thanked him for
his prayer and solidarity" during the half-hour meeting Thursday. Francis
frequently calls attention to the suffering of those persecuted for their
religious beliefs. Lombardi said the presence of "their wonderful small
children" added to the affectionate tone of the meeting. Ibrahim was presented
with a rosary, a gift from the pope. Ibrahim and her family are expected
to spend a few days in Rome before heading to the United States.

Earlier Thursday, Reuters reported that Italian television broadcast
images of Ibrahim and her family arriving in Rome with Italian politician
Lapo Pistelli. Pistelli had posted a picture on his Facebook page depicting
himself with Ibrahim and her two children. The caption, translated from
Italian, read "With Meriam, Maya, Martin and [Ibrahim's husband] Daniel,
a few minutes from Rome. Mission accomplished." Italian Prime Minister
Matteo Renzi was among those who greeted the plane, calling it "a day of
celebration." Ibrahim had spent more than a month at the American Embassy
in Khartoum after a previous attempt to leave Sudan was halted by that
country's authorities. They said she had attempted to use false travel
documents, a claim Ibrahim denied.

Last month, Sudan's Supreme Court threw out the death sentence Ibrahim
had received for refusing to renounce her Christian faith. Ibrahim's father,
a Muslim, claimed she had abandoned Islam and committed adultery with her
husband Daniel Wani, a U.S. citizen who lives in New Hampshire. However,
Ibrahim insisted that she had been raised Christian by her Ehiopian Orthodox
mother after her father left the family when she was still young. Pistelli
told the Associated Press that Italy had leveraged its historic ties within
the Horn of Africa region to help win her release, though the specifics
were not immediately clear. Ibrahim's lawyer, Mohaned Mostafa, told Reuters
that he had not been aware of her departure.

"I don't know anything about such news but so far the complaint that
was filed against Mariam and which prevents her from travelling from Sudan
has not been cancelled," he said.

Catholics urged to pray for cancellation of black
mass

An estimated 2,000 people attend holy hour May 12 at St. Paul Church
in Cambridge, Mass., in reaction to plans for a satanic ritual black mass
to be held in a pub on the Harvard University campus. The student group
organizing the black mass ultimately cancelled the event. (CNS photo/Gregory
L. Tracy, Pilot)Jul 23, 2014

Fr. John Lankeit, rector of Ss. Simon and Jude Cathedral in Phoenix,
is urging local Catholics to gather for a 7 p.m. holy hour July 25 in order
to pray that a black mass scheduled to take place Sept. 21 in Oklahoma
City will be canceled.

A black mass is a sacrilegious ceremony that invokes Satan and desecrates
a eucharistic host stolen from a Catholic church. The host is then used
in a profane, sexual ritual. We will pray specifically for the cancellation
of the black mass, Fr. Lankeit said. I am calling on all of the Catholic
faithful and people of good will to stand firm against the powers of Hell,
and in defense of those vulnerable souls who would be drawn to this evil
event. Archbishop of Oklahoma City Paul Coakley has been an outspoken
critic of the black mass.

There are common standards of decency that civic-minded people uphold
that are necessary for constructive public discourse, and this violates
all of those standards, Archbishop Coakley told Catholic News Agency July
16. This is a mockery of one faith, a hostile act toward a significant
faith community, the Catholic community. It would be truly offensive
to a significant segment of their population, that is the Catholic, and
the Christian community at large, the archbishop added. Oklahoma is a
very church-minded community; there are not many Catholics here, but a
great majority are Christian, and this is really an affront to all Christian
believers, and I think the more people are recognizing that, the more theyre
willing to speak up.

The occult group Dakhma of Angra Mainyu has been scheduled to hold a
black mass at the Oklahoma City Civic Center Music Hall Sept. 21. I give
the benefit of the doubt to those who allowed this civic center to be booked
by a satanic group for the purpose of a black mass, because my suspicion
is that whoever booked it had no idea what a black mass is, how offensive
such a thing is, Archbishop Coakley reflected. Initially there was ignorance,
I think, about what they were getting into.

When CNA spoke on July 3 with Jennifer Lindsey-McClintock  the music
halls public information manager  about the nature of the event, she
cited the halls neutrality policy saying its not for us to judge whether
it is appropriate or not. Archbishop Coakley said that my hope is that
through prayer, and through continued communication with the civic officials
here, they will come to recognize this is not a prudent course, not a good
course, for the city. He added that he supposes that if someone desired
to rent the civic center to have a public burning of a Quran, or a blatantly
anti-semitic sort of program, that the city would rightly find some way
to prevent that from happening. And they should. That would be very clear.

My question, is why cant they recognize that this is equally offensive
to the Catholic community, and act accordingly to prevent such a black
eye on the community, such an affront to the Catholic and to the Christian
community? Lindsey-McClintock, however, claimed that as a city-funded
facility, they must operate in a position of neutrality. She said that
this policy would mean the center would host racist or anti-Jewish events
as long as it was not hosting something specifically illegal in nature,
or that during the production they were taking part in illegal activities we
do not discriminate against any group based on the content of their message.

I think the more people here in Oklahoma, as well as around the country,
have heard about this, and reflected upon what exactly it entails, the
more outraged, and upset, people have become, Archbishop Coakley said.
Black masses, he said, are a grievous sacrilege and blasphemy of the first
order taking what is most sacred to us as Catholics, and mocking it, desecrating
it, in vile, often violent and sexually explicit ways Its obviously horrendous what
they intend to do with that consecrated Host is offensive beyond description.

Archbishop Coakley called it a terribly disturbing development in our
community, and I think one of the things people need to realize, is this
is inviting very dark and evil forces into our community. I think I have
an obligation, we have an obligation, to do what we can do to prevent that
from happening  unleashing spiritual influences which are harmful and
destructive.

Noting the recently planned black mass at Harvard, another satanic groups
attempt to place a satanic monument at the Oklahoma capitol, and this planned
black mass, the archbishop said that perhaps if anything, its a manifestation
that these kinds of groups are becoming emboldened because of a certain
kind of increasing tolerance for an increasingly outrageous mode of conduct
in our culture.

I hope to be meeting in the near future with civic officials, he added.
Well continue to explore ways of dialoguing with civic officials.
Obviously for us as people of faith, as Catholics, were praying
for a change of heart, that something will shift, and that there will be
a change of direction, and a recognition that this cannot be allowed.

The archbishop noted that there have been a number of petitions against
the event on Facebook and other sites, not organized by the archdiocese,
but very much a grassroots thing. My role in this, Archbishop Coakley
said, is simply to provide a voice, and leadership, drawing attention
to it, and encouraging people to pray, and to voice their concern to civic
officials.

Should the black mass not be canceled, the archbishop said the Catholic
community will find a way to lift up the Eucharist in a way that shows
our love for Christ in the Eucharist, our respect and honor for the gift
of the Blessed Sacrament. Whether through Masses of reparation, holy hours,
or processions, we will do what we can do to bear witness to our faith
in the true presence of Christ in the Eucharist, Archbishop Coakley said.

Bl. Jerzy Popieluszko's meek but fearless counsel to Solidarity offers
lessons we'd be well to heed.

SR. M. MICHELE JASCENIA, SCMC (2) July 22, 2014

The life and martyrdom of Bl. Jerzy Popieluszkojust 30 years agois
probably little known outside the Polish and Polish-American communities.
They should be. How he counseled and spiritually led the then growing opposition
to the Communist regime in Poland is a model that we could do well to emulate
today wherever human rights are being systematically violated.
On 6 June 2010, Pope Benedict XVI beatified Father Jerzy Popieluszko.
Father Popieluszko was abducted and murdered by the Communist secret police
in October 1984, at the age of thirty-seven.

Blessed Jerzy was a chaplain and influential advocate of
the Solidarity movement. His gentle words of encouragement, his dedication
to the Gospel message in the midst of immense pressure and threats from
the government and law enforcement were like living flames from the Holy
Spiritwarning, warming and lighting the way for thousands of Polish people
who knew firsthand the denial of basic human rights, and in particular
the denial of religious freedom. The predominantly Catholic Poles hungered
for freedom.

Father Jerzy took their hearts into his own heart and made their hunger
his hunger, their struggle his struggle, their pain, his pain. Father
reminded the many who attended his Masses about Gods love, His strength,
His truth. He used the words of Jesus to maintain peace while encouraging
their perseverance. Though the government reacted with violence, Father
was able to keep the crowds focused on Jesus waythe way of prayerfully,
peacefully, trustingly moving forward regardless of what retaliation the
government promised. Such retaliation did come and it was often brutal.
Still, Blessed Jerzy would not back down. The people would not back down
in spite of arrests, violence, and at times, bloodshed. The faithful stood
firm in the face of powerful opposition.

Father Popieluszko gave witness to how every Christian must respond
to pressure, threats and physical and or psychological attacks.
The Gospel, the crucifix, as well as patience and adherence to the truth
were their shields; prayer was their weapon; unity and perseverance marked
the mindset of Solidarity. Father led his people to Christ and led them
with Christ against a godless government.

Blessed Jerzy paid for this with his life. The Polish people paid with
their hearts, for when Father was taken from them, they had to carry on
without his gentle encouragement, his loving and understanding presence.
What Father Popieluszko planted in their hearts and souls, however, even
the Communist government of Poland could not destroy with all its cold
and deadly force. It could not even weaken their resolve. On the contrary,
government retaliation only served to strengthen the Polish people.

The blood of Father Popieluszko watered the seeds of faith and the Gospel
message in the lives of the people. The witness of Blessed Jerzy, his sacrifice
on their behalf and on behalf of all of Poland, had already secured a victory.
No one can kill God, even in His witnesses. The power of charity and the
power of sacrifice, in imitation of Jesus love and sacrifice on the Cross,
marked a new beginning in the struggle.

We, too, must make Blessed Popieluszkos example our own. May his witness
keep us strong in the Spirit, urging us on to be witnesses to the truth,
to the Gospel, and to the love and gentleness of Christ. May Father Popieluszko
help to strengthen our wills to do what is good and true; and with the
power of Christ and His Cross, may this martyr of Poland help us to persevere
in our struggle for freedom, and for truth.

Sr. M. Michele Jascenia, S.C.M.C. is a religious with the Sisters
of Charity of Our Lady Mother of the Church and resides at their Holy Family
Motherhouse in Baltic, Ct. She teaches elementary school and is a freelance
writer

Iraq Catholic leader says Islamic State worse than
Genghis Khan

BY DOMINIC EVANS AND RAHEEM SALMAN
BAGHDAD Mon Jul 21, 2014 12:23am BST
Iraqi Christians fleeing the violence in the Iraqi city of Mosul, pray
at the Mar Afram church at the town of Qaraqush in province of Nineveh,
July 19, 2014. REUTERS-Stringer

CREDIT: REUTERS/STRINGER

(Reuters) - The head of Iraq's largest church said on Sunday that Islamic
State militants who drove Christians out of Mosul were worse than Mongol
leader Genghis Khan and his grandson Hulagu who ransacked medieval Baghdad.
Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako led a wave of
condemnation for the Sunni Islamists who demanded Christians either convert,
submit to their radical rule and pay a religious levy or face death by
the sword.
At the Vatican, Pope Francis decried what he said was the persecution
of Christians in the birthplace of their faith, while U.N. Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon said the Islamic State's actions could constitute a crime against
humanity.

Hundreds of Christian families left Mosul ahead of Saturday's ultimatum,
many of them stripped of their possessions as they fled for safety. They
formed the remnants of a community which once numbered in the tens of thousands
and traced its presence in Mosul to the earliest years of Christianity.
People of other faiths in the once diverse city, including Shi'ites, Yazidis
and Shabaks, have also fled from the ultra-conservative militants, who
have blown up mosques and shrines and seized property of fleeing minorities.

"The heinous crime of the Islamic State was carried out not just against
Christians, but against humanity," Sako told a special church service in
east Baghdad where around 200 Muslims joined Christians in solidarity.
"How in the 21st century could people be forced from their houses just
because they are Christian, or Shi'ite or Sunni or Yazidi?" he asked. "Christian
families have been expelled from their houses and their valuables were
stolen and ...their houses and property expropriated in the name of the
Islamic State." "This has never happened in Christian or Islamic history.
Even Genghis Khan or Hulagu didn't do this," he said. Hulagu Khan led a
Mongol army which sacked Baghdad in 1258, killing tens of thousand of people,
destroying a caliphate which lasted nearly 600 years and leaving the city
in ruins for centuries.

"WORLD MUST ACT"

Muslims at the service held up leaflets declaring "I am Iraqi, I am
Christian", some writing it on their shirts. Others marked themselves with
an "N", the first letter of the Arabic word for Christian, "Nasrani" or
Nazarene. The Islamic State has been putting an "N" on Christian property
marked out for seizure. One of Zako's deputies, Bishop Shlemon Wardooni,
called for an international response. "The world must act, speak out, consider
human rights," he said, adding that the Iraqi state was weak and divided
and Muslim leaders had remained silent.

"We haven't heard from clerics from all sects or from the government,"
he told Reuters on Sunday. "The Christians are sacrificed for Iraq." Iraqi
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki condemned the treatment of the Christians
and what he described as attacks on churches in Mosul, saying it showed
"the extreme criminality and terrorist nature of this group". He said he
instructed a government committee set up to support displaced people across
Iraq to help the Christians who had been made homeless, but did not say
when the army might try to win back control of Mosul. Iraq's security forces,
which wilted under the weight of last month's Islamic State-led offensive,
have been reinforced by Shi'ite militia fighters and are trying to push
back the Sunni militants further south. So far they have failed to take
back significant territory from the insurgents.

Pope Francis said he was troubled by the Islamic State ultimatum in
his weekly public prayers on Sunday. The Chaldeans are Eastern Rite Catholics
in communion with Rome. "I learned with great concern the news that came
from the Christian communities in Mosul and other parts of the Middle East,
where they have lived since the birth of Christianity and where they have
made significant contributions to the good of their societies," he said
"Today they are persecuted. Our brothers are persecuted. They've been driven
away. They must leave their homes without being able to take anything with
them."

REFUGEES ROBBED

U.N. Secretary General Ban condemned "in the strongest terms the systematic
persecution of minority populations in Iraq by Islamic State (IS) and associated
armed groups," a statement by his spokesman said. Any systematic attack
on a civilian population because of their ethnic background, religious
beliefs or faith may constitute a crime against humanity, for which those
responsible must be held accountable, he said. More than 2 million people
have already been displaced in Iraq and the local U.N. mission said another
400 uprooted families arrived on Sunday morning in two cities in northern
Iraq's autonomous Kurdish enclave. Another 700 families were expected in
Arbil, barely 50 miles (80 km) from Mosul, it said. One Christian who left
Mosul last week described how he fled with his family when he learned of
the Islamic State deadline. "We gathered all our belongings and headed
for the only exit. There was a checkpoint on the road and they were stopping
cars there," 35-year-old Salwan Noel Miskouni said.

When the militants saw they were Christians, they demanded gold and
money. The family initially said they had none, one of the fighters took
their four-year-old son by the hand and threatened to abduct him. "My sister
emptied her entire handbag with our money and gold and her ID. They let
the car pass and the child go," Miskouni said. A few Christian families
had stayed on, he said, hiding with Muslim neighbours who gave them shelter.
But for now, he saw no possibility of returning with his family. "If (the
Islamic State) leaves we will probably go back but if they stay its impossible
- because they will slaughter us."

Pope Francis: Communists stole the flag of Christianity

Published time: June 30, 2014 00:51
Pope Francis, whose criticisms of unbridled capitalism have caused
many to brand him a Marxist, said in an interview published Sunday that
communists stole Christian ideals.

The 77-year-old pontiff was asked during his interview with local Il
Messaggero newspaper about a blog in the Economist magazine by a journalist
who said the Pope sounded a lot like a Leninist because he often criticized
capitalism and called for reform of the global economic system.

I can only say that the communists have stolen our flag. The flag of
the poor is Christian. Poverty is at the center of the Gospel, said the
Pope. He was referring to passages in the Bible which state the need to
help the poor. Pope Francis has often called for people to share
their wealth with the poor. Communists say that all this is communism.
Sure, twenty centuries later. So when they speak, one can say to them:
but then you are Christian,' he said laughing. The Pope also said
that global politics is mired in corruption and bribery, adding that there
is a deficiency in social work in society. In regards to religious
doctrine, the Pope said that the gospel cannot be understood without understanding
poverty, and to be poor before God means poverty of the spirit. Earlier
this month, Pope Francis said that wealth from financial speculation and
speculation on commodities was scandalous and compromised the poors access
to food.

Pope emphasizes: you cannot love God outside of the
Church

Catholic World News - June 25, 2014
Pope Francis continued his series of Wednesday general audiences on
the Church and emphasized that belonging to the Church is essential to
being a Christian. We are Christians because we belong to the Church,"
Pope Francis said. Its like a last name: if the first name is I am a
Christian, the last name is I belong to the Church.

No one becomes a Christian by himself, the Pope continued, as he explained
that Christians receive their faith in baptism and through catechesis.
He asked those assembled in St. Peters Square to recall the faces of parents,
grandparents, priests, nuns, and others who taught them the sign of the
cross, prayers, and the content of the faith. I always remember the face
of the nun who taught me catechism, he said, as he called the Church a
large family. There are those who believe you can have a personal, direct,
immediate relationship with Jesus Christ outside of the communion and the
mediation of the Church, he continued. These are dangerous and harmful
temptations.

The Pope concluded by asking the Virgin Mary to pray the grace never
to fall into the temptation of thinking that we do not need the Church.
On the contrary, you cannot love God without loving the brothers, you
cannot love God outside of the Church; you cannot be in communion with
God without being in the Church.

Pope Francis says Italian Mafia members are 'excommunicated'

The Pope comforted the imprisoned father of a 3-year-old boy killed
in the region's drug war and denounced Mafiosi for their 'adoration of
evil' during a one-day pilgrimage to Calabria, the mob power base in southern
Italy.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Saturday, June 21, 2014, 5:56 PM

ASSANO ALLJONIO, Italy  Pope Francis journeyed Saturday to the heart
of Italys biggest crime syndicate, met the father of a 3-year-old boy
slain in the regions drug war, and declared that all mobsters are automatically
excommunicated from the Catholic Church.

During his one-day pilgrimage to the southern region of Calabria, Francis
comforted the imprisoned father of Nicola Campolongo in the courtyard of
a prison in the town of Castrovillari. In January the boy was shot, along
with one of his grandfathers and the grandfathers girlfriend, in an attack
blamed on drug turf wars in the nearby town of Cassano allJonio. The attackers
torched the car with all three victims inside. The boys father and mother
already were in jail at the time on drug trafficking charges. The pope
had expressed his horror following the attack and promised to visit the
town. Francis embraced the man. He asked the pope to pray for the boys
mother, who was permitted to leave prison following her sons slaying and
remains under house arrest. The pope also met two of the boys grandmothers.

A Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Ciro Benedettini, said Francis told the
father: May children never again have to suffer in this way. The two
grandmothers were weeping like fountains, Benedettini added. Calabria
is the power base of the ndrangheta, a global drug trafficking syndicate
that enriches itself by extorting businesses and infiltrating public works
contracts in underdeveloped Calabria. During his homily at an outdoor Mass,
Francis denounced the ndrangheta for what he called its adoration of
evil and contempt for the common good.  Those who go down the evil
path, as the Mafiosi do, are not in communion with God. They are excommunicated,
he warned. Francis greeted about 200 other prisoners during his visit there.
When Francis visited a hospice, a doctor there removed a bothersome wooden
splinter from one of the popes fingers at his request, organizers said.

Peace Breaks Out In Israel Moments After Olive
Tree Planted

June 9, 2014

VATICANJust moments after Israeli President Shimon Peres and his Palestinian
counterpart Mahmoud Abbas helped Pope Francis plant an Olive Tree in the
Vatican Garden yesterday, the Jewish news outlet The Fiddler reported that
peace had broken out in Israel.
Upon hearing the news, Pope Francis told Israeli and Palestinian leaders
I told you so. I told you so. Didnt I tell you this was a magic tree?

Surrounded by Palestinians and Israelis holding hands and giving each
other piggyback rides, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Skyped
Pope Francis to inform him that everything had been a misunderstanding,
and all was now settled.

The Palestinians are wonderful people! Netanyahu told Pope Francis
as he signed an executive order to open all checkpoints in the country,
allowing free access for Palestinians to move around. As of today we will
have two states. Israel and Palestine will from here on, live happily side
by side.

The recorded Skype video shows jubilant Hamas leaders hoisting Netanyahu
on to their shoulders as they chanted, Peace! Peace! Peace!

But less than one day after receiving news that every single Middle
East conflict had been resolved, the magic Olive Tree that Francis, Peres,
and Abbas had shoddily planted into the ground toppled over with a gust
of wind, instantaneously causing a chain reaction of violent outbreaks
all across the Middle East.

Speaking to reporters from the Vatican Gardens, Francis said that he
was saddened to hear of the news, going on to tell the press that he had
received another Skype from Netanyahu showing the Israeli Prime Minister
in a fist fight with Hamas leaders.

Both sides are now blaming the other over whose shoddy work caused the
fall of the tree.

Sudan court frees Christian woman from death row

(Reuters) - A 27-year-old woman who was sentenced to death in Sudan
last month for converting to Christianity from Islam was freed on Monday
after what the government said was "unprecedented" international pressure.

Mariam Yahya Ibrahim, who is married to a Christian American, was ordered
by a Sudanese court last month to return to Islam and was sentenced to
100 lashes and to death.

Her release is likely to be welcomed by human rights groups and Western
governments who voiced outrage at the ruling. Britain had last month summoned
the Sudanese charge d'affaires to protest against the sentencing.
"The appeal court ordered the release of Mariam Yahya and the cancellation
of the (previous) court ruling," Sudans SUNA news agency said. A government
official had told Reuters on May 31 that Sudanese officials were working
to release Ibrahim. Ibrahim was sent to a secret location for her protection,
her lawyer said. "Her family had been threatened before and we are worried
that someone might try to harm her," the lawyer, Mohaned Mostafa, told
Reuters. Ibrahim gave birth in prison to a daughter, her second child by
her husband Daniel Wani, whom she married in 2011. Sudan's Foreign Ministry
said it had come under "unprecedented" international pressure to free Ibrahim.

"Now that the independent Sudanese judiciary has said its word in the
case of a single national, the Foreign Ministry would like to remind the
international community about the continued suffering of 35 million nationals
as a result of sanctions," its statement said U.S. Secretary of State John
Kerry welcomed the decision to release Ibrahim. "Her case has rightly drawn
the attention of the world and has been of deep concern to the United States
government and many of our citizens and their representatives in Congress,"
Kerry said in a statement released by the State Department. "From this
step, we would hope that the government of Sudan could take further strides
toward a different and more hopeful future for the people of Sudan," Kerry
added The United States imposed sanctions on Sudan in 1997 over alleged
human rights violations and support for what it called "international terrorism",
then strengthened the penalties in 2006 over Khartoum's festering conflict
with rebels in Darfur.

(Reporting by Maaz Alnugomi in Khartoum; Additional reporting by Will
Dunham in Washington; Writing by Yasmine Saleh; Editing by Alison Williams
and Mohammad Zargham)

Google praised for dropping porn ads

Mountain View, Calif., Jun 16, 2014 / 07:12 am (EWTN News)
The head of a marriage and family group has lauded reports that Google
is alerting advertisers that it is cutting pornography from its advertising
policy.
Pornography is turning out to be one of the biggest causes of divorce,
if you talk to divorce lawyers or marriage counselors, Dr. Janet Morse,
president of the marriage defense group the Ruth Institute, told EWTN News.
So I applaud Google for taking this off their site. I think thats a pro-social
act on their part, and its a lot better than government censorship.

Morality in Media reported June 6 that an e-mail from Google to advertisers
informed them of the policy change. Google listed graphic depictions of
sexual acts as among the things that it would no longer tolerate and stated
that it would disapprove all ads and sites that are identified as being
in violation of our revised policy. Morality in Media added that it seems
Google will also no longer link to sites that contain such materials.
Dr. Morse said the decision benefits society as a whole, because pornography
is anti-social by nature.

Pornography use has become an anti-social issue, because its a form
of anti-social behavior when you think about the fact that human sexuality
is designed to draw men and women together for the good of the species
and for the good of society, she explained. Pornography turns that whole
intrinsically pro-social desire into something thats completely private
and personal and isolated, she continued, adding that it is preventing
men from being in real relationships with real people.

50 000 Charismatics prays over the Pope

Pope Francis' Comments and Address at Charismatic Renewal
Convention

"You are dispensers of the grace of God, not controllers! Dont be a
customs office to the Holy Spirit!"

Vatican City, June 03, 2014 (Zenit.org)

At 5 oclock today June 1, the Holy Father went to Romes Olympic Stadium
to meet with the participants in the 37thNational Convention of Renewal
in the Holy Spirit (Rome, June 1-2, 2014). The event was organized by Renewal
in the Spirit in collaboration with ICCRS (International Charismatic Catholic
Renewal Services) and CFCCCF (Catholic Fraternity of Charismatic Covenant
Communities and Fellowship).

Several testimonies were presented to the Pope in the course of the
meeting, which he commented on individually, before his address to those
present.

Following is a translation of Pope Francis words in response to the
different testimonies and his final address.

* * *

WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER

To Priests:

To you priests, I wish to say one word: closeness -- closeness to Jesus
Christ in prayer and adoration. Closeness to the Lord and closeness to
the people, to the people of God entrusted to you. Love your people, be
close to the people. This is what I ask of you, this twofold closeness:
closeness to Jesus and closeness to the people.

To Young People:

It would be sad if a young person kept his youth in a strongbox: such
youth becomes old in the worse sense of the word. It turns into a wreck,
is good for nothing. Youth is to be risked: to risk it well, to risk it
with hope. It is to wager on great things. Youth is to be given, so that
others will know the Lord. Do not save your youth for yourselves: go forward!

To Families:

Families are the domestic Church, where Jesus grows, grows in the love
of spouses; grows in the life of the children. It is because of this that
the Enemy so attacks the family: the devil does not want it! And he seeks
to destroy it; he acts so that love will not exist there. Families are
this domestic Church. Spouses are sinners, as everyone is, but they wish
to go forward in the faith, in their fruitfulness, in the children and
in the faith of the children. May the Lord bless the family, may he make
it strong in this crisis in which the devil wants to destroy it.

To the Disabled:

Brothers and sisters who suffer, who have an illness, who are disabled,
are brothers and sisters anointed by the suffering of Jesus Christ; they
imitate Jesus in the difficult moment of their cross, of their life. This
anointing of their suffering they carry forward for the whole Church. Thank
you so much, brothers and sisters; thank you so much for you acceptance
and for being anointed by suffering. Thank you so much for the hope that
you witness, that hope that leads us forward seeking Jesus caress.

To the Elderly:

I said to Salvatore that perhaps someone is missing, perhaps the most
important: grandparents are missing! The elderly are missing, and they,
the old, are the assurance of our faith. Look, when Mary and Joseph took
Jesus to the Temple there were two elderly there; and four if not five
times  I do not remember well  the Gospel says that they were led by
the Holy Spirit. Instead, of Mary and Joseph it says that they were led
by the Law. Young people must comply with the Law; the elderly  as good
wine  have the freedom of the Holy Spirit. And so this Simeon, who was
courageous, invented a liturgy, and praised God, he praised and it
was the Spirit that pushed him to do this. The elderly! They are our wisdom,
they are the wisdom of the Church; the elderly whom we so often discard,
the grandparents, the elderly And that little grandmother, Anna, did
an extraordinary thing in the Church: she canonized gossip! And how did
she do it? In this way: because instead of gossiping against someone, she
went from one place to the other saying [of Jesus]: It is he; he it is
who will save us! And this is a good thing. Grandmothers and grandfathers
are our strength and our wisdom. May the Lord always give us wise elderly
people! -- elderly who give us the memory of our people, the memory
of the Church. And may they give us also what the Letter to the Hebrews
says of them: the sense of joy. It says that the elderly greeted the promises
from afar: may they teach us this.

Prayer of the Pope:

Lord, take care of your people in expectation of the Holy Spirit. Take
care of young people, take care of families, take care of children, take
care of the sick, take care of priests, consecrated men and women, take
care of us Bishops, take care of all. And grant us that holy intoxication,
that of the Spirit, that which makes us speak all languages, the languages
of charity, always close to brothers and sisters who need us. Teach us
not to fight among ourselves to have an extra bit of power; teach us to
be humble; teach us to love the Church more than our party, than our internal
quarrels; teach us to have an open heart to receive the Spirit. Send
your Spirit, o Lord, upon us! Amen

***

THE HOLY FATHERS ADDRESS

Dear brothers and sisters!

I thank you so much for your welcome. No doubt someone told the organizers
that I very much like this song, The Lord Jesus Lives When I celebrated
holy Mass in Buenos Aires with the Charismatic Renewal, after the consecration
and after a few seconds of adoration in tongues, we sang this song with
so much joy and force, as you did today. Thank you! I felt at home!

I thank Renewal in the Spirit, the ICCRS and the Catholic Fraternity
for this meeting with you, which gives me so much joy. I am grateful also
for the presence of the first who had an intense experience of the power
of the Holy Spirit; I believe that it was Patty, here You, Charismatic
Renewal, have received a great gift from the Lord. You were born of the
will of the Spirit as a current of grace in the Church and for the Church.
This is your definition: a current of grace.

What is the first gift of the Holy Spirit? The gift of Himself, who
is love and makes you enamored of Jesus. And this love changes life. Because
of this it is said: to be born again to life in the Spirit. Jesus said
it to Nicodemus. You have received the great gift of the diversity of charisms,
diversity that leads to the harmony of the Holy Spirit, to the service
of the Church.

When I think of you Charismatics, the image of the Church herself comes
to me, but in a particular way: I think of a great orchestra, where every
instrument is different from another and the voices are also different,
but all are necessary for the harmony of the music. Saint Paul says
it in chapter XII of the First Letter to the Corinthians. Therefore, as
in an orchestra, no one in the Renewal can think of being more important
or greater than another, please! No one can say: Im the head. You, as
the whole Church, have only one head, only one Lord: the Lord Jesus. Repeat
with me: who is the head of the Renewal? The Lord Jesus! Who is the head
of the Renewal? [those present]: the Lord Jesus! And we can say this with
the strength that the Holy Spirit has given us, because no one can say
Jesus is the Lord without the Holy Spirit.

As you perhaps know  because news spreads  in the first years of the
Charismatic Renewal I did not like Charismatics much. And I said of them:
They seem like a school of samba! I did not share their way of praying
and the many new things that were happening in the Church. Afterwards,
I began to know them and in the end I understood the good that Charismatic
Renewal does to the Church. And this story, which goes from the school
of samba forward, ends in a particular way: a few months before taking
part in the Conclave, I was appointed by the Episcopal Conference spiritual
assistant of Charismatic Renewal in Argentina.
Charismatic Renewal is a great force at the service of the proclamation
of the Gospel, in the joy of the Holy Spirit. You received the Holy Spirit
that made you discover the love of God for all his children and love of
the Word. In the early times it was said that you Charismatics always carried
the Bible with you, the New Testament Do you still do it today? [the
crowd]: Yes?! Im not so sure. If not, return to this first love; always
carry in your pocket, in your bag the Word of God! And read a little piece
-- always with the Word of God.

You, people of God, people of the Charismatic Renewal, be careful not
to lose the freedom that the Holy Spirit has given you. The danger for
the Renewal, as our dear Father Raniero Cantalamessa often says, is that
of excessive organization: the danger of excessive organization.

Yes, you need organization, but do not lose the grace of letting God
be God! However, there is no greater freedom than that of letting oneself
be carried by the Spirit, refusing to calculate and to control everything,
and allow Him to illuminate you, lead you, guide you, and push you where
He wishes. He knows well what the need is in every age and moment. This
calls to be mysteriously fruitful! (Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium,
280).

Another danger is that of becoming controllers of Gods grace. So
often the leaders (I prefer the name servants) of some group or some
community become, perhaps without wanting it, administrators of grace,
deciding who can receive the prayer of the effusion or Baptism in the Spirit
and who, instead, cannot. If some do so, I beg you not to do so anymore,
dont do it anymore You are dispensers of the grace of God, not controllers!
Dont be a customs office to the Holy Spirit!

You have a guide in the Documents of Malines, a sure course not to mistake
the way. The first document is: Theological and Pastoral Guideline. The
second is: Charismatic Renewal and Ecumenism, written by Cardinal Suenens
himself, great protagonist of Vatican Council II. The third is: Charismatic
Renewal and Service to Man, written by Cardinal Suenens and Bishop Helder
Camara.

This is your task: evangelization, spiritual ecumenism, care of the
poor and needy and hospitality for the marginalized. And all this on the
basis of adoration! The foundation of the renewal is to adore God!

I have been asked to tell the Renewal what the Pope expects from you.

The first thing is conversion to the love of Jesus, which changes life
and makes of the Christian a witness of the Love of God. The Church expects
this witness of Christian life and the Holy Spirit helps us to live the
coherence of the Gospel for our holiness.

I expect from you that you share with all, in the Church, the grace
of Baptism in the Holy Spirit (expression that is read in the Acts of the
Apostles).

I expect from you an evangelization with the Word of God which proclaims
that Jesus is alive and loves all men.

I expect that you give witness of spiritual ecumenism with all those
brothers and sisters of other Churches and Christian communities who believe
in Jesus as Lord and Savior.

That you remain united in the love that the Lord Jesus asks of us for
all men, and in the prayer to the Holy Spirit to come to this unity, necessary
for evangelization in the name of Jesus. Remember that the Charismatic
Renewal is by its very nature ecumenical Catholic Renewal rejoices over
what the Holy Spirit carries out in the other Churches (1 Malines 5, 3).

Be close to the poor, the needy, to touch in their flesh the flesh of
Jesus. Be close, please!

Seek unity in the Renewal, because unity comes from the Holy Spirit
and is born of the unity of the Trinity. From whom does division come?
From the devil! Divison comes from the devil. Flee from internal fights,
please! They must not exist among us!

I want to thank the ICCRS and the Catholic Fraternity, the two organizations
of Pontifical Right of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, at the service
of global Renewal; be committed to preparing the world meeting for priests
and Bishops, which will be held in June of next year. I know that you have
also decided to share the office and to work together as a sign of unity
and to manage the resources better. I rejoice greatly. I also want to thank
you because you are already organizing the Great Jubilee of 2017.

Brothers and sisters, remember: adore the Lord God: this is the foundation!
To adore God. Seek sanctity in the new life of the Holy Spirit. Be dispensers
of the grace of God. Avoid the danger of excessive organization.

Go out into the streets to evangelize, proclaiming the Gospel. Remember
that the Church was born in going forth that Pentecost morning. Be close
to the poor and touch in their flesh the wounded flesh of Jesus. Let yourselves
by led by the Holy Spirit, with that freedom and, please, do not cage the
Holy Spirit! With liberty!

Seek the unity of the Renewal, unity that comes from the Trinity!

And I await you all, Charismatics of the world, to celebrate, together
with the Pope, your Great Jubilee in Pentecost of 2017, in Saint Peters
Square! Thank you!

Ratzinger the African

Expansion of the nunciatures. Increase of cardinals. Larger number of
positions in the curia. Benedict XVI is betting on Africa. Because, he
says, it is the continent with the most lively faith

VATICAN CITY, December 11, 2012  "Africa is currently the most dynamic
continent from the point of view of the expansion of the Church and of
Christianity in general, and where vocations are the most numerous in terms
of percentage.

This was recalled in a recent article in La Civiltà Cattolica"
focusing on a conference dedicated to Paul VI and Africa at which a number
of speakers emphasized the great attention that that pope has dedicated
to the continent, prophetically intuiting also its openness to the evangelical
message. The article emphasizes how Benedict XVI also has referred
to Africa as to the ' lung' of the Church. And in effect, the pontificate
of Joseph Ratzinger is showing itself year by year to be ever more attentive
to what is happening on the black continent.
The attention of Benedict XVI to Africa is highly evident from the
diplomatic point of view, just for starters. In the course of the current
pontificate, the network of nunciatures in Africa has been developed further.
With Benedict XVI, in fact, two new nunciature headquarters have been opened
in Burkina Faso and Liberia. Not only that. Vatican officials have been
sent on a permanent resident basis to Chad, Gabon, and Malawi. But African
countries have also demonstrated a growing interest in having closer relations
with the Holy See.

In 2008, in fact, Botswana also established full diplomatic relations
with the Holy See. In this way, today, only three African countries, all
of them with an overwhelming Islamic majority, do not yet have an exchange
of representation with the Vatican. They are the Comoros islands, Mauritania,
and tormented Somalia. With pope Ratzinger, moreover, while Ireland has
downgraded its historic diplomatic representation from resident to non-resident,
five countries have gone in the opposite direction, establishing the residence
of their ambassador in Rome. Three of these are African: Cameroon, Benin,
and, as of this year, Nigeria, the most populous country on the continent.

To this must be added the increase of diplomatic accords between the
Holy See and African countries. Before the current pontificate, the Vatican
had stipulated a modus vivendi" with Tunisia in 1964, then there was an
exchange of letters between the king of Morocco and John Paul II in 1983
-84, then two accords with Cameroon concerning the Institut Catholique
of Yaoundé and a couple of partial conventions with Ivory Coast.
The only accord-framework, of broader impact, was the one with Gabon in
1997. With Benedict XVI, three accord-frameworks have already been stipulated:
with Mozambique in 2011, with Equatorial Guinea and Burundi this year.
But the current pope's special attention to Africa does not demonstrate
itself exclusively or primarily in the diplomatic arena.

Let's look at the voyages. The pope theologian has gone there two times
so far, in spite of his advanced age. John Paul II made his last African
voyage, to Nigeria, in 1998, when he was 78 years old. Benedict XVI went
to Cameroon and Angola in 2009, at the age of 82, and in 2011 to Benin,
when he was 84. Let's move on to the creation of cardinals. With Ratzinger
as pope, among the 74 new cardinal electors he has created, 7 are African,
9.5percent. This is the highest percentage ever. John Paul II made 16 out
of 210 (7.6 percent), Paul VI 12 out of 143 (8.4 percent).

In the appointments to the Roman curia as well, Benedict XVI has an
eye of special regard for the African continent. He has called the Ghanaian
cardinal Peter Turkson to head the pontifical council for justice and peace
and has promoted the Guinean Robert Sarah to president of the council "Cor
Unum," bestowing on him the scarlet. Pope Ratzinger has also called the
Tanzanian archbishop Novatus Rugambwa to fill the position of adjunct secretary
of "Propaganda Fide," while he has chosen the Beninois Barthélemy
Adoukonou as secretary of the council for culture, elevating him to the
episcopate, and Monsignor Jean-Marie Mate Musivi Mupendawatu, of the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, as the new secretary of the council for the pastoral
care of health care workers. With Benedict XVI, for the first time an African
has become the master of pontifical ceremonies: he is Jean-Pierre Kwambemba
Masi of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

And for the first time, a son of the black continent will has been given
the delicate position of head of protocol of the secretariat of state.
He is Monsignor Fortunatus Nwachukwu, a Nigerian, who recently, after five
years of service, has been promoted as archbishop and nuncio in Nicaragua,
becoming the fourth African pontifical representative appointed during
this pontificate. The others are Leon Kalenga, of the Democratic Republic
of the Congo, the Nigerian Jude Thaddeus Okolo, and the Tanzanian Rugambwa
(who afterward, as stated, was called to the curia).

This too is a little Ratzingerian record. Until 2005, in fact, the first
and only African nuncio was the Ugandan Augustine Kasujja, appointed by
John Paul II in 1998. But what is the root of this African predilection
of pope Ratzinger? The pontiff himself explained this in the opening homily
for the African synod of 2009: Africa represents an immense spiritual
'lung' for a humanity that appears to be in a crisis of faith and hope.
Benedict XVI further explored this intuition of his in speaking to journalists
during his voyage to Benin in 2011:

"The freshness of Africas yes to life and the youthfulness that is
found there, so full of enthusiasm and hope as well as humour and liveliness,
show us that Africa has a reserve of humanity, there is still a freshness
about its religious sense and its hope. [...] So I would say that the fresh
humanism found in Africas young soul, despite all the problems of today
and tomorrow, shows that Africa still has a reserve of life and vitality
for the future, on which we can depend."

Two years earlier, on December 21, 2009, assessing his voyage to Cameroon
and Angola, Benedict XVI also positively evaluated the style with which
the liturgy is celebrated in Africa:

"The memory of the liturgical celebrations is impressed upon my memory
in a particularly profound way. The celebrations of the holy Eucharist
were true feasts of faith. I would like to mention two elements that seem
particularly important to me. First of all, there was a great shared joy,
which was even expressed through the body, but in a disciplined way oriented
by the presence of the living God. With this the second element is already
indicated: the sense of the sacred, of the presence of the mystery of the
living God. [...] Yes, this awareness was there: we are in the presence
of God. This does not lead to fear or inhibition, nor to an external obedience,
and far less to self-display before one another or an undisciplined shouting.
There was instead what the fathers called 'sobria ebrietas': being filled
with a joy that nonetheless remains sober and orderly, that unites people
starting from the inside, leading them to the communal praise of God, a
praise that at the same time stirs up love of neighbor, and mutual responsibility."
*
Pope Benedict certainly does not ignore the limitations and difficulties
of the African Church, which became glaring, for example, with the resignation
he imposed on the central African bishops of Bangui and Bossango in 2009
over moral problems, and that of Koudougou in Burkina Faso in 2011 because
of managerial incompetence, or with the "relieving" of authority of the
bishop of Point-Noire in Congo, also in 2011.

But this does not prevent the white-haired "white Father" from continuing
to wager on the black continent for the future of the Church.

MSFS: chart new road map for innovation at all levels

Published Date: February 20, 2013

Chapter gives new thrust on Good Governance.

The 19th General Chapter of the Missionaries of St. Francis De Sales
(MSFS) came to its close on 15th Feb 2013. With the clarion call of the
Founder, the servant of God, Fr. Peter Mary Mermier, I want missions,
the Capitulants prayerfully engaged themselves in the unfolding of the
theme of the General Chapter:  MSFS- Mystics of Gods love for prophetic
ministries today.

Thirty
eight Capitulants, hailing from South America, North America, Europe, Australia,
Africa and Asia participated in the two-week long Chapter, which has gifted
to the Congregation not only a new team of general administration but also
certain orientations, directives and an action plan for carrying out the
mission of Christ with innovation and fresh enthusiasm.

The General Chapter of Missionaries of St. Francis De Sales elected
Very Rev. Fr. Abraham Vettuvelil MSFS as Superior General for the first
term of six years. It acknowledged the unique contribution of Very Rev.
Fr. Agnelo Fernandes MSFS, the former Superior General to the entire Congregation
through his dynamic spiritual leadership for the last twelve years.

The Chapter also elected the following confreres to assist the Superior
General in the governance of the Congregation: Very Rev. Fr. Thumma Mariadas
Reddy (Assistant Superior General), Very Rev. Fr. Noel Rebello (General
Secretary for Formation), Very Rev. Fr. George Parampukattil (General Secretary
for Education), Very Rev. Fr. Jose Kumblolickal (General Secretary for
Social apostolates and Innovative Ministries), Very Rev. Fr. Jayaseelan(the
General Secretary for Mission), and Very Rev. Fr. Augustine Mangat ( General
Bursar).

The Chapter has given a new thrust on Good Governance at all levels
and has adopted plans for its implementation. While inviting the members
to a joyful fidelity to living the basics of religious life, the Chapter
has also placed a new emphasis on networking and collaboration, sharing
of personnel, and pooling of material resources for the promotion of a
better visibility to the charismatic expressions of the foundational apostolates:
Renewal of Christian life, Pioneering evangelization and Formation of the
young.

With the openness to the Spirit of God, the Capitulants disposed themselves
to taking bold steps for guiding the members of the Congregation to think
Congregationally; and respond generously and joyfully to the needs of
people and communities. Thus the Chapter has given a new road map for bringing
innovation in spiritual leadership, mission, life style, community living,
and in carrying out the various apostolates.

The Missionaries of St. Francis De Sales was founded at Annecy in France
by the Servant of God Fr. Peter Mary Mermier. Today the Congregation is
spread out to 26 countries of the world. The six Provinces in India with
over 850 priests and 250 professed members in various stages of formation
form the youthful part of the Congregation. This year, the MSFS Congregation
is celebrating the 175th anniversary of its foundation.

Source: Fr. Francis Thadathil MSFS

A statue of the Virgin Mary is all what is left of
the 80 houses burned by Sandy in Queens,

There is an image of Mother Mary under the advocation of "miraculous
Mary"

NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 30: A Virgin Mary is all that remains from a
home which was destroyed during Hurricane Sandy in Breezy Point, Queens
on October 30, 2012 in New York, United States. Over 50 homes wer destroyed
in a late night and fast moving fire. At least 15 people were reported
killed in the United States by Sandy as millions of people in the eastern
United States have awoken to widespread power outages, flooded homes and
downed trees. New York City was hit especially hard with wide spread power
outages and significant flooding in parts of the city. (Spencer Platt,
Getty Images)

Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Matt Long poked around the sooty ground in front
of the charred remains of his home of 15 years.
Nothing inside survived the post-Hurricane Sandy fire that ravaged
the beachfront hamlet of Breezy Point, New York. Long and his wife, Mary,
were trying to salvage the only keepsakes they could: octagonal stones,
each six inches across. One bore the handprint of 10-year-old Grace, the
other was made by 8- year-old Emily.
The house on Gotham Walk and 110 others were destroyed by fire on that
stretch of peninsula on the southwestern tip of New York Citys Queens
borough, about 10 miles by air from John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Its awful, said Long, 46, a former firefighter who was nearly killed
when a bus making an illegal turn slammed into his bicycle in 2005. Theres
a lot of history in this place, and now its all gone.
Mary, 38, stood on what used to be the familys front stoop and wiped
away tears. The neighborhood nicknamed the Irish Riviera was unrecognizable.
In addition to the structures claimed by fire, many more of Breezy Points
2,834 houses were waterlogged, missing walls or listing on sunken foundations.
John Whelan, 49, stood at the edge of what had been a densely-built
block of homes. A few brick chimneys survived and at least three statuettes
of the Virgin Mary.
These things made it, Whelan said, pointing to one of the religious
statues. This is a very Catholic community.

It reminds the case of last September 5, 2012 in Braithwaite, Louisiana
when a statue of the Virgin Mary stands in flood waters in Plaquemines
Parish. Louisiana officials estimate that at least 13,000 homes were damaged
by Hurricane Isaac

Up to 85 percent of gynecologists in some regions refuse to perform
abortions.

Jesi
is a lovely Italian hill town not far from Ancona on the Adriatic coast
in the center-north of the country. A few weeks ago the local hospital
let it be known that they faced a doctor shortage of sorts. It seems that
all of the towns 10 gynecologists refuse to perform abortions. They are
all conscientious objectors. The local office of the communist labor union
spread the news because they claimed womens rights were being denied,
although Italys abortion legislation (Law 194/78) explicitly provides
a right for doctors and other medical personnel to refuse to participate
in the procedure.

Jesis top medical bureaucrats began a search for doctors elsewhere
in the Marche region where the town is located. A doctor from nearby Fabriano,
40 kilometers away, agreed to be on call in case of need and to go to Jesi
if an abortion seeker would not go to Fabriano. However, his services may
or may not be much in demand.

While abortion doctors in the entire Marche region seem to be rare,
abortions are not that many to begin with. Italian Ministry of Health data
on abortions indicate that women from the Marche region had 2,458 abortions
in 2009, but that nearly one-fourth had their procedure done outside their
resident province and 10% outside the region.

Further north, in the town of Treviglio, near Bergamo in Lombardy, a
similar problem has arisen: 24 out of 25 anesthesiologists in the four
hospitals serving a population of around 350,000 refuse to be involved
in abortions, and 24 out of 28 gynecologists-obstetricians are also conscientious
objectors. Other medical facilities in the Bergamo province also report
a high number of objectors but the supply is not as tight as in Treviglio.
Nonetheless, press reports indicate that in the entire province of Bergamo,
five percent of the 1,867 abortions performed in 2010 were on women from
outside the area. It seems that there may be even more conscientious objectors
elsewhere in Lombardy, Italys most prosperous region.

If such refusals are helping the downward trend of abortions in Italy,
there are also incentives for women to keep their babies. The regional
government of Lombardy has put in place a program to assist resident women
who wanted an abortion for economic reasons but changed their minds. Progetto
Nasko  or Project I am Born  grants a mother keeping her child 250 euros
per month for 18 months after she obtains medical confirmation of her pregnancy
and demonstrates evidence of economic hardship. The expectant mother receives
a prepaid rechargeable card which is managed by one of several Centers
for Aid to Life (Centri di aiuto alla vita).

The examples above are part of Italys experience since abortion was
legalized in 1978. Not all countries compile data on abortions as detailed
as that of Italys Ministry of Health, but the results coming out of Italy,
as discussed in a previous MercatorNet article by this author, indicate
that in 2010, the total number of abortions in Italy declined 2.7 percent
to 115,372 and were 51 percent below the 1982 peak. At the same time, the
number and share of conscientious objectors in the medical profession have
steadily increased.

Evidently moral and ethical factors do play a role in peoples professional
lives. Respect for life and human dignity should be a consideration falling
under medical doctors oath to first do no harm. Ethical considerations
are not always in harmony with economic perceptions, but every child brought
to light in Italy helps advance the precariously low fertility rate, which
has been inching up in recent years and reached 1.42 in 2011, up from 1.35
in 2006 and 1.25 ten years earlier.

The latest data (2007-2009) also show that the overwhelming majority
of Italys gynecologists are conscientious objectors when it comes to abortion.
A regional breakdown shows a range from a low of 52 percent in Emilia-Romagna
(part of Italys so-called red belt, in political terms) to a high of
85 percent in Basilicata in the south. Indeed, objectors account for over
three-quarters of their profession in 10 out of the 21 Italian regions.
The national average has been as high as 71 percent. Jesi and Treviglio
are just two local examples of good news on the life front coming out of
Italy.

Vincenzina Santoro is an international economist. She represents the
American Family Association of New York at the United Nations.

Pope opens Synod: The Church exists to evangelize 2012-10-07 Vatican Radio(Vatican
Radio)  A host of cardinals, bishops, priests, religious and lay people
drawn from throughout the Universal Church gathered around Pope Benedict
XVI Sunday morning as he declared the Thirteenth Synod of Bishops on the
New Evangelisation, officially open. Emer McCarthy reports :
Green was the liturgical colour and the concelebrating Synod fathers
took their places at the foot of the altar before the façade of
St Peters Basilica, as Pope Benedict XVI outlined his vision and hopes
for the important task ahead of them in the next three weeks: helping people
to rediscover faith in Jesus Christ.
In his homily, he said in every time and place, evangelization always
has as its starting and finishing points Jesus Christ, the Son of God (cf.
Mk 1:1); and the Crucifix is the supremely distinctive sign of him who
announces the Gospel: a sign of love and peace, a call to conversion and
reconciliation.
This call, he continued, should take into account those who do not
yet know Jesus Christ and his message of salvation, and those who, though
baptized, have drifted away from the Church. Then  reflecting on the
Sunday Gospel, Mark Chapter 10 - Pope Benedict singled out one area for
particular attention: Marriage.
Looking out at the tens of thousands gathered in St Peters Square
he said that marriage is a Gospel in itself and Good News for todays
dechristianized world. The union of a man and a woman, their becoming
one flesh in charity, in fruitful and indissoluble love, is a sign that
speaks of God with a force and an eloquence which in our days has become
greater because unfortunately, for various reasons, marriage, in precisely
the oldest regions evangelized, is going through a profound crisis.
Benedict XVI pointed to a link between the current crisis of faith
and this crisis in marriage, because marriage is based on the grace of
God that man of today no longer recognizes. To overcome this crisis, any
crisis, we need to be newly reconciled with God.

Above the altar from the central balcony of St Peters basilica hung
two giant tapestries depicting St John of Avila and St Hildegard of Bingen.
Reciting the solemn formula in Latin Pope Benedict XVI declared them both
Doctors of the Universal Church. He then reminded the men and women gathered
to the Vatican for the Synod that the saints are the true actors and pioneers
in evangelization and invoking their intercession, Pope Benedict concluded
by entrusting the Synods work to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Star of the
New Evangelization.
Below the full text of Pope Benedict XVIs Homily, Sunday October 7th,
2012:

With this solemn concelebration we open the thirteenth Ordinary General
Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the theme The New Evangelization for
the Transmission of the Christian Faith. This theme reflects a programmatic
direction for the life of the Church, its members, families, its communities
and institutions. And this outline is reinforced by the fact that it coincides
with the beginning of the Year of Faith, starting on 11 October, on the
fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council.
I give a cordial and grateful welcome to you who have come to be part of
the Synodal Assembly, in particular to the Secretary-General of the Synod
of Bishops, and to his colleagues. I salute the fraternal delegates of
the other churches and ecclesial communities as well as all present, inviting
them to accompany in daily prayer the deliberations which will take place
over the next three weeks. The readings for this Sundays Liturgy of the
Word propose to us two principal points of reflection: the first on matrimony,
which I will touch shortly; and the second on Jesus Christ, which I will
discuss now. We do not have time to comment upon the passage from the Letter
to the Hebrews but, at the beginning of this Synodal Assembly, we ought
to welcome the invitation to fix our gaze upon the Lord Jesus, crowned
with glory and honour, because of the suffering of death (2:9). The word
of God places us before the glorious One who was crucified, so that our
whole lives, and in particular the commitment of this Synodal session,
will take place in the sight of him and in the light of his mystery. In
every time and place, evangelization always has as its starting and finishing
points Jesus Christ, the Son of God (cf. Mk 1:1); and the Crucifix is the
supremely distinctive sign of him who announces the Gospel: a sign of love
and peace, a call to conversion and reconciliation. My dear Brother Bishops,
starting with ourselves, let us fix our gaze upon him and let us be purified
by his grace.

I would now like briefly to examine the new evangelization, and its
relation to ordinary evangelization and the mission ad Gentes. The Church
exists to evangelize. Faithful to the Lord Jesus Christs command, his
disciples went out to the whole world to announce the Good News, spreading
Christian communities everywhere. With time, these became well-organized
churches with many faithful. At various times in history, divine providence
has given birth to a renewed dynamism in Churchs evangelizing activity.
We need only think of the evangelization of the Anglo-Saxon peoples or
the Slavs, or the transmission of the faith on the continent of America,
or the missionary undertakings among the peoples of Africa, Asia and Oceania.
It is against this dynamic background that I like to look at the two radiant
figures that I have just proclaimed Doctors of the Church, Saint John of
Avila and Saint Hildegard of Bingen. Even in our own times, the Holy Spirit
has nurtured in the Church a new effort to announce the Good News, a pastoral
and spiritual dynamism which found a more universal expression and its
most authoritative impulse in the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council. Such
renewed evangelical dynamism produces a beneficent influence on the two
specific branches developed by it, that is, on the one hand the Missio
ad Gentes or announcement of the Gospel to those who do not yet know Jesus
Christ and his message of salvation, and on the other the New Evangelization,
directed principally at those who, though baptized, have drifted away from
the Church and live without reference to the Christian life. The Synodal
Assembly which opens today is dedicated to this new evangelization, to
help these people encounter the Lord, who alone who fills existence with
deep meaning and peace; and to favour the rediscovery of the faith, that
source of grace which brings joy and hope to personal, family and social
life. Obviously, such a special focus must not diminish either missionary
efforts in the strict sense or the ordinary activity of evangelization
in our Christian communities, as these are three aspects of the one reality
of evangelization which complement and enrich each other. The theme of
marriage, found in the Gospel and the first reading, deserves special attention.
The message of the word of God may be summed up in the expression found
in the Book of Genesis and taken up by Jesus himself: Therefore a man
leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become
one flesh (Gen 2:24; Mk 10:7-8). What does this word say to us today?
It seems to me that it invites us to be more aware of a reality, already
well known but not fully appreciated: that matrimony is a Gospel in itself,
a Good News for the world of today, especially the dechristianized world.
The union of a man and a woman, their becoming one flesh in charity,
in fruitful and indissoluble love, is a sign that speaks of God with a
force and an eloquence which in our days has become greater because unfortunately,
for various reasons, marriage, in precisely the oldest regions evangelized,
is going through a profound crisis. And it is not by chance. Marriage is
linked to faith, but not in a general way. Marriage, as a union of faithful
and indissoluble love, is based upon the grace that comes from the triune
God, who in Christ loved us with a faithful love, even to the Cross. Today
we ought to grasp the full truth of this statement, in contrast to the
painful reality of many marriages which, unhappily, end badly. There is
a clear link between the crisis in faith and the crisis in marriage. And,
as the Church has said and witnessed for a long time now, marriage is called
to be not only an object but a subject of the new evangelization. This
is already being seen in the many experiences of communities and movements,
but its realization is also growing in dioceses and parishes, as shown
in the recent World Meeting of Families.

One of the important ideas of the renewed impulse that the Second Vatican
Council gave to evangelization is that of the universal call to holiness,
which in itself concerns all Christians (cf. Lumen Gentium, 39-42). The
saints are the true actors in evangelization in all its expressions. In
a special way they are even pioneers and bringers of the new evangelization:
with their intercession and the example of lives attentive to the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit, they show the beauty of the Gospel to those who are
indifferent or even hostile, and they invite, as it were tepid believers,
to live with the joy of faith, hope and charity, to rediscover the taste
for the word of God and for the sacraments, especially for the bread of
life, the Eucharist. Holy men and women bloom among the generous missionaries
who announce the Good News to non-Christians, in the past in mission countries
and now in any place where there are non-Christians. Holiness is not confined
by cultural, social, political or religious barriers. Its language, that
of love and truth, is understandable to all people of good will and it
draws them to Jesus Christ, the inexhaustible source of new life. At this
point, let us pause for a moment to appreciate the two saints who today
have been added to the elect number of Doctors of the Church. Saint John
of Avila lived in the sixteenth century. A profound expert on the sacred
Scriptures, he was gifted with an ardent missionary spirit. He knew how
to penetrate in a uniquely profound way the mysteries of the redemption
worked by Christ for humanity. A man of God, he united constant prayer
to apostolic action. He dedicated himself to preaching and to the more
frequent practice of the sacraments, concentrating his commitment on improving
the formation of candidates for the priesthood, of religious and of lay
people, with a view to a fruitful reform of the Church.

Saint Hildegard of Bingen, an important female figure of the twelfth
century, offered her precious contribution to the growth of the Church
of her time, employing the gifts received from God and showing herself
to be a woman of brilliant intelligence, deep sensitivity and recognized
spiritual authority. The Lord granted her a prophetic spirit and fervent
capacity to discern the signs of the times. Hildegard nurtured an evident
love of creation, and was learned in medicine, poetry and music. Above
all, she maintained a great and faithful love for Christ and the Church.This
summary of the ideal in Christian life, expressed in the call to holiness,
draws us to look with humility at the fragility, even sin, of many Christians,
as individuals and communities, which is a great obstacle to evangelization
and to recognizing the force of God that, in faith, meets human weakness.
Thus, we cannot speak about the new evangelization without a sincere desire
for conversion. The best path to the new evangelization is to let ourselves
be reconciled with God and with each other (cf. 2 Cor 5:20). Solemnly purified,
Christians can regain a legitimate pride in their dignity as children of
God, created in his image and redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ,
and they can experience his joy in order to share it with everyone, both
near and far.
Dear brothers and sisters, let us entrust the work of the Synod meeting
to God, sustained by the communion of saints, invoking in particular the
intercession of great evangelizers, among whom, with much affection, we
ought to number Blessed John Paul II, whose long pontificate was an example
of the new evangelization. Let us place ourselves under the protection
of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Star of the New Evangelization. With her let
us invoke a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit, that from on high he may
illumine the Synodal assembly and make it fruitful for the Churchs way
ahead.

Africa: Christians outnumber Muslims

At a conference in Morocco, Italian sociologist, Massimo Introvigne,
revealed that African practicing Catholics outnumber their European counterpartsA. TOR Vatican City

The latest figures reveal that Christianity has become the African continents
number one religion, clearly surpassing Islam. This is according to the
findings of a study presented today during the course of a conference organised
by CESNUR (Center for Studies on New Religions) at El Jadida University
in Morocco. The figures revealed at the conference which was attended by
seventy speakers from 18 countries, today, Christians account for 46, 53%
of the African population compared to the 40, 46 % represented by Muslims
and the 11, 8% represented by traditional African religions.
The study states that among African countries, 31 have Christian majorities,
21 have Muslim majorities and 6 have populations which adhere mostly to
traditional African religions. In 1900 Christians in Africa totalled ten
million; in 2012 this number reached five hundred million. In 1900 only
2% of Christians in the world were African; today, this figure has risen
to 20%. In ten years time they will be the largest continental bloc within
Christianity, outdoing Europe and the Americas. This data is still not
widely known - stated sociologist Massimo Introvigne, CESNURs founder
 but they have a profound historical, cultural and political significance.
There are now more practicing Christians in Africa than in Europe. In the
long run, this will not only change Africa but Christianity as well as
John Paul II had intuited. His attention to Africa was continued by Benedict
XVI who has already visited the continent twice.

Of course, not everyone is happy about this development, Introvigne
added. The sociologist claims that this growth in the number of Christians
across the African continent could be one of the causes of certain attacks.
Some Islamic ultra-fundamentalists consider it scandalous that there are
more Christians than Muslims in Africa and proceed to persecute and kill
Christians in countries such as Nigeria, Mali, Somalia and Kenya. The way
the ultra-fundamentalists see it, today, the battle which will determine
whether the world will be Muslim or Christian is being fought in Africa.
And that Islam is losing. This is why they are responding with bombs.

Speaking at the Rimini Meeting last August, Ignatius Kaigama, the Archbishop
of Jos, in Nigeria, had said: Most Muslims and Christians in Northern
Nigeria would like to live in peace and be good neighbours, despite all
the tensions that exist. Mixed Muslim and Christian families can be found
in both Southern and Northern Nigeria. But it is no secret that some Muslim
leaders would like to immerse the Loran in the Atlantic sea: they believe
Islam should be the countrys dominant religion, as was demonstrated with
the introduction of Sharia law in some parts of the North. Nothing can
be said against what can be defined as a legitimate aspiration: every religion
would like to expand and boost the number of its followers. But this must
be done in a peaceful and civil manner, through testimony.

Christians should leave their beliefs at home, say
lawyers

The European Court of Human Rights is hearing a test-case appeal from
Christians who want the right to wear a cross at work.
Posted on September 5, 2012, 3:49 PM

Christians should leave their religious beliefs at home or accept that
a personal expression of faith at work, such as wearing a cross, means
they might have to resign and get another job, government lawyers have
said.

Landmark cases, brought by four British Christians, including two workers
forced out of their jobs after visibly wearing crosses, have been heard
today at the European Court of Human Rights

David Cameron, the Prime Minister, has previously pledged to change
the law to protect religious expression at work but official legal submissions
on Tuesday to Strasbourg human rights judges made a clear difference between
the professional and private sphere.
James Eadie QC, acting for the government, told the European court
that the refusal to allow an NHS nurse and a British Airways worker to
visibly wear a crucifix at work did not prevent either of them practicing
religion in private, which would be protected by human rights law.

He argued that that a Christian, or any other religious believer, under
difficulty is not discriminated against if the choice of resigning and
moving to a different job is not blocked.

The option remains open to them, he said.

Government lawyers also told the Strasbourg court that wearing a cross
is not a generally recognised act of Christian worship and is not required
by scripture.

Nadia Eweida, a BA worker, from Twickenham, south-west London, made
the headlines when she was sent home in 2006 after refusing to remove a
necklace with a cross or hide it from view.

An employment tribunal ruled Ms Eweida, a Coptic Christian originally
from Egypt, had not suffered religious discrimination, but the airline
changed its uniform policy after the case to allow all religious symbols,
including crosses.

Nurse Shirley Chaplin, from Exeter, was moved to a paperwork role by
the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Trust in Devon after refusing to remove
a necklace bearing a crucifix.

Ms Chaplin told The Daily Telegraph that she felt insulted by the
argument that Christians who are told by their employer that they cannot
wear a cross at work can always find another job.

My Christian faith isnt something that you put on and then take off
to go to work. It is with you 27/7. It is my identity, it is who I am,
I cannot chop and change it, she said.

Vatican Radio compares Europe to Tower of Babel

The Church and Europe2012-09-03 Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio)  In the first in a series of Vatican Radio editorials
focusing on the Church and Europe, Director of Programming, Fr. Andrej
Koprowski S.J., explores the causes of the current economic crisis gripping
the old continent and how Christianity can help Europe rediscover its dynamism:The Bible describes how the Tower of Babel was built. While they were
at work on it, the builders realised they were actually working against
one another. The more they tried to be like God, the more they risked not
being authentically human. They had lost a basic characteristic of their
humanity: the ability to agree with one another, to understand one another,
to work together.
Europe is in the grips of an economic crisis. The causes are not exclusively
European or even exclusively economic. Its origins can be found in various
spheres: from the financial crisis in the United States, to the rapid economic
development of Asia; from growing unemployment with its inevitable effects
on the future of the younger generation, to the lack of vision in educating
people with respect for cultural and social needs; from the difficulty
of formulating policies that support the family, to the demographic crisis
and the surge of immigration towards Europe, with all its social and cultural
consequences; from the long-term effects of ideologies and lobbies that
fail to consider the community or the future of civil society, to exaggerated
forms of individualism and false freedoms.
The development of the crisis is equally complex. There are multiple
protagonists and causes for both the lack and the excess of development.
Blame and merit can be equally divided. Ideologies tend to simplify reality
and make it artificial, whereas problems need to be faced in terms of their
human dimension. Social issues have become anthropological questions: artificial
procreation, embryo research, human cloning  technological absolutes present
a disturbing scenario for the future of humanity, often relying on instruments
that the culture of death has placed at their disposal.
Culturally and demographically weakened, yet enriched by millions of
new citizens coming from various continents, cultures and religions, Europe
is in the throes of creating its future. In 1997, after a meeting in Gniezno,
Poland, between John Paul II and presidents of seven European nations,
German President, Roman Herzog, said: Changes are happening very quickly
today. In 25 years from now, if Europe is still an independent continent,
or if it is just an appendage of American media or of Asian industry, it
will be because Europe rediscovered its own dynamism at the right time
 a dynamism it inherited from Christianity over the centuries.
Benedict XVI adds: In the multicultural situation in which we find
ourselves, we are seeing a rationalistic European culture without a transcendent
religious dimension, that is incapable of entering into dialogue with the
great cultures of humanity, which all possess this transcendent religious
quality, which is the human dimension I believe that the purpose and mission
of Europe is to discover this dialogue, to integrate modern faith and reason
into a single anthropological vision that completes the human person and
is capable of communicating human cultures. (In-flight press conference
during trip to Portugal, May 11th 2010)

MANAMA, Bahrain  The building of the largest Roman Catholic church
in the Gulf was supposed to be a chance for the tiny island kingdom of
Bahrain to showcase its traditions of religious tolerance in a conservative
Muslim region where churches largely operate under heavy limitations.

Instead, the planned church  intended to be the main center for Catholics
in the region  has turned into another point of tension in a country already
being pulled apart by sectarian battles between its Sunni and Shiite Muslim
communities.
Hardline Sunni clerics have strongly opposed the construction of the
church complex, in a rare open challenge of the countrys Sunni king. More
than 70 clerics signed a petition last week saying it was forbidden to
build churches in the Arabian Peninsula, the birthplace of Islam.

One prominent cleric, Sheik Adel Hassan al-Hamad, proclaimed in a sermon
during Friday prayers last month, that there was no justification for building
further churches in Bahrain, adding, anyone who believes that a church
is a true place of worship is someone who has broken in their faith in
God.

In response, the government ordered him transferred out of his mosque,
located in the elite district of Riffa, where many members of the royal
family live and the king has several palaces. But the transfer order touched
off a wave of protests by the clerics supporters on social media sites
and by Sunni-led political blocs. Finally, the government was forced last
week to cancel the order.

The uproar reflects the widening influence and confidence of hardline
Sunni groups, who have been a key support for the monarchy as it faces
a wave of protests led by Shiites demanding greater political rights. Shiites
account for about 70 percent of Bahrains population of just over half
a million people, but claim they face widespread discrimination and lack
opportunities granted to the Sunni minority. The monarchy has also has
relied heavily on help from ultraconservative Saudi Arabia, which last
year sent troops to help crush protests.

More than 50 people have been killed and hundreds detained in nearly
19 months of unrest in the strategic island kingdom, which is home to the
U.S. Navys 5th Fleet. Bahrains rulers have promised some reforms and
urged dialogue to ease the crisis.

Instead, positions on all sides have hardened.

Many among the majority Shiites claim the Sunni monarchy is not interested
in reforms that would weaken its near monopoly on power. Bahrains most
senior Shiite cleric, Sheik Isa Qassim, has actively opposed the church
plans, questioning why the government should donate land for a Christian
site when Shiite mosques have been destroyed as part of the crackdowns.

A Bahrain-based political analyst, Ali Fakhro, questioned the timing
of the church project at a time when the nation is still locked in its
own upheavals.

What Bahrain needs is to solve it is own internal issues rather than
adding more new things that could be the source of troubles, he said.
The plate is already full.
So far the outcry has brought no change in plans to build the church
complex, which has been backed by King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifas monarchy.
The complex will be the size of a large shopping center  about 9,000 square
meters (97,000 square foot)  in Awali, an area near Riffa, south of the
capital, Manama. It is to be a base for the Vatican to the small Catholic
communities in the northern Gulf, as well as a spiritual center for other
Christian denominations.

Work on the compound is still in its preliminary stages and no firm
date has been given for its completion, leaving open the possibility of
more complaints in the coming months.

The church project is part of last years change by the Vatican to carve
out a new apostolic district covering Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi
Arabia. The administrative headquarters are expected to shift from Kuwait
to Bahrain.

There are believed to be several million Christians in the overwhelmingly
Muslim Gulf region, the vast majority of them expatriate workers who largely
come from East and South Asia. Throughout the Gulf states, non-Muslim places
of worship must work discreetly and cannot actively reach out for converts.
In Saudi Arabia, churches are banned completely and any overt wearing of
non-Muslim religious symbols is banned.

But Bahrain has a multi-religious tradition  and tolerance  that is
unique in Gulf. The island nation has several Christian extended families
which originally immigrated from Iraq, Iran or elsewhere in the early 20th
Century and gained citizenship when Bahrain gained independence. Similarly,
it has native Jewish and Hindu communities. The first Roman Catholic church
in the Gulf was built in 1939 on land donated by Bahrains emir.

The building of the church complex is a sign of openness, important
for Bahrain, and I hope it will serve as a model for other countries, too,
the regions bishop, the Rev. Camillo Ballin, said in a statement.

Elsewhere in the Gulf, issues over Christian churches have flared in
the past year.

In Kuwait, Islamist lawmakers have proposed bans on further construction
of churches. Saudi Arabias grand mufti, Abdel Aziz Al Sheik, reportedly
urged for the destruction of all Christian churches on the Arabian peninsula,
but it was quickly dismissed by nearly all Islamic leaders in the region.

Bahrain is a country of tolerance among all religions, sects and races.
This is well known about Bahrains history, said the Rev. Hani Aziz of
Bahrains National Evangelical Church, who was among 19 non-Catholic Christian
leaders who also met with Bahrains king over the project. The construction
of a church falls in line with this image.

Palestinians seek support to end suffering

They say a a renewed Palestinian-Indian friendship would help find a
just solution to their problems.

Posted on July 20, 2012, 4:53 PM

By Philip Mathew and Ritu Sharma
New Delhi:

A two-member delegation from Palestine met with various groups in India
to seek solidarity to end their peoples suffering under Israeli occupation.

We want India to renew its friendship with Palestinians that seems
to drift toward Israel, said Fr. Jamal Khader, a professor at Bethlehem
University.

Accompanied by Amjad Alqasis, an international human rights law expert,
the Catholic priest has met with civil society, Churches and government
to explain the Palestinian issue.

They addressed a July 17-18 consultation in New Delhi organized by the
Indian Ecumenical Solidarity Network for Palestine (ISEN), a network of
ecumenical organizations in India concerned about and involved in working
for a just peace.

Last week, they attended a three-day consultation of Christian theologians
at Chennai, that asked people visiting the Holy Land to include in their
itinerary a meeting with Palestinian Christians to witness their plight.

Addressing a press conference in New Delhi Wednesday, Fr. Khader said
a renewed Palestinian-Indian friendship would help find a just solution
to their problems.

Fr. Khader said this against the backdrop of Indias increasing relations
with Israel.

I have learned that Israel is a supplier of arms to India, the priest
said, adding that the money earned by selling arms would be used to support
Israeli military industry which in turn would increase their occupation
of Palestinians.

The delegates also noted that the occupation of Palestine by the Israelis
was accompanied by brutal measures designed to humiliate and oppress the
former.

Expressing concern over the situation of the Palestinians, the ISEN
members said that Indias support to the Israeli regime is unethical and
must end immediately.

They planned a nation-wide campaign for boycott-disvestments-sanctions
(BDS) against Israel.

BDS is a campaign started on July 9, 2005 by 171 Palestinian non-governmental
organizations in support of the Palestinian cause for boycott, divestment
and international sanctions against Israel.

In addition to the campaign, the ISEN will also engage in building public
awareness about the Palestinians cause through meetings, seminars, media
and youth initiatives.

Father Khader said two percent of the five million Palestinians are
Christians.

He said that they have till now visited Europe, United States, South
Africa, the Arab countries and Hong Kong to mobilize public support for
the cause.

Two British women fired for not removing cross in the
workplace

Britain experiences umpteenth attack on religious freedom as two
women are fired for refusing to remove their necklaces in the workplace.
The two are now taking their case to the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg

Michelangelo NascaRome

The case involving the two young British women - Nadia Eweida, an air
hostess at Heathrow airport and Shirley Chaplin, a nurse  who were fired
for refusing to remove their crosses from around their necks during working
hours, may seem absurd but it is true.
The two women - who claim they are victims of discrimination -
are asking the Human Rights Court in Strasbourg to recognise their right
to the freedom of faith. Meanwhile, London legislators have prepared an
ad hoc draft law allowing employers to fire staff who refuse to conceal
symbols of their Christian faith.
The decision of the Court in Strasbourg will be valid for all countries
that are members of the Council of Europe, including Russia, the Ukraine,
Belarus and Moldavia. So Russian Orthodox Christians also see this decision
as a threat to their own faith.
In a statement to The Voice of Russia radio station, Filipp Riabykh,
Moscow Patriarchate representative to the Council of Europe said: In our
Churchs tradition, it is obligatory for us to wear a cross. If the Court
in Strasbourg allows English employers to win the case, this could have
negative consequences for orthodox Christians in other European countries.
We see this as completely unacceptable because faithful are required to
bear the symbols of Christianity in all circumstances.

The Christian cross - an innocuous depiction of a man condemned to death
- sparks more protests than any other religious symbol.

It appears, however, that the crucifix represents a real threat to modern
man, one which many non-believers call the superstition of the converted
individual. Indeed, according to ancient Christian tradition, the individual
could receive Gods grace and change life at any moment.

If the cross were just a simple little sacred symbol of Christianity,
the whole affair would have been forgotten about. Francesco dAssisi and
his friends would have continued to play around with life and perhaps in
time would have become a fabric merchant and even richer than his father;
Mother Theresa of Calcutta would have contented herself with teaching in
a girls school in Calcutta instead of dedicating every single moment of
her existence to loving the poorest of the poor. Obviously before such
a romantic and incongruent ideology of faith, no one could ever have dreamed
that the crucifix would be banned from public areas.

But as the Patriarchate of Moscow awaits a verdict from Strasbourg,
it has prepared, with the help of some scholars, a document which proves
the right of Christians to wear the cross and profess their religion. The
document has been sent to Strasbourg and will be included in the documents
of the case opened against Britain by Nadia Eweida and Shirley Chaplin.

Russia and Poland, Orthodox and Catholics. The Breakthrough
Message

It has been signed in Warsaw by the patriarch of Moscow and the president
of the Polish bishops. To begin a common journey after centuries of hostilities.
Here is the complete text. With the comment of Pope Benedict XVI

by Sandro Magister

Russian
Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, right, and Metropolitan Sawa of the
Polish Orthodox Church greet a Catholic clergyman at St. Mary Magdalene
Orthodox Cathedral in Warsaw Aug. 16.The head of the Russian Orthodox Church made a historic visit to
Poland with a message of reconciliation. (CNS photo/Kacper Pempel, Reuters

ROME, August 22, 2012  The reports from Russia since the middle of
August have been dominated by the trial of three members of the band Pussy
Riot, the young women charged with insulting President Putin and singing
slogans against God and the Church in the cathedral of Moscow.

During those same days, however, there took place in Eastern Europe
"an important event that raises hope for the future".

This is how Benedict XVI defined, at the Angelus last Sunday, the joint
declaration signed on Friday, August 17 in the castle of Warsaw by the
patriarch of Moscow and all the Rus', Kirill, and by the president of the
Polish episcopal conference, Archbishop Józef Michalik.

Pope Joseph Ratzinger did not define this event as "historic," but he
came close. It is enough to consider that the visit of Patriarch Kirill
was the first ever of a head of the Russian Orthodox Church to Poland.
And that, on the contrary, John Paul II was never able to go to Moscow
precisely because of the immovable burden of the age-old hostilities between
Russia and the nation of his birth, Poland.

In 1965, another document of reconciliation, this time between the Catholic
Churches of Poland and Germany, was signed jointly by the leaders of the
two Churches. And that document is rightly recalled as an historic breakthrough.

But that of today is certainly of greater importance.

The political and religious conflicts that are meant to be healed are
not limited to the last few decades, but span entire centuries: from the
fighting between Polish-Lithuanian forces and those of the tsar in the
seventeenth centuries to the massacre of Katyn in 1943, when the Soviet
secret police massacred 22,000 Polish prisoners of war.

Moreover, those who signed this document with a fraternal spirit are
the representatives of two Churches separated by a millennial schism: Catholic
and Orthodox.

In addition, this is a message projected into the future. Which marks
out a common path for the two Churches and the two peoples, both on the
terrain of evangelization and on that of resistance to the challenges of
secular culture, especially on abortion, euthanasia, the family. In these
passages, the document specifically cites the magisterium of Benedict XVI:
yet another sign of how much improvement there has been, with the current
pontiff, in relations between the Churches of Rome and Moscow.

Below, the document  not easy to find in the Western languages
 is reproduced in its entirety.

of the Chairman of the Bishops Conference of Poland, Archbishop Józef
Michalik, Metropolitan of Przemysl,

and the Head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch of Moscow and
All Russia Cyril

"God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not holding anyones
faults against them, but entrusting to us the message of reconciliation"
(2 Cor 5: 19).

In the spirit of responsibility for the present and the future of our
Churches and peoples, urged by pastoral concern, on behalf of the Catholic
Church in Poland and of the Russian Orthodox Church we address this message
of reconciliation to the faithful of our Churches, to our nations and all
people of good will.

Proclaiming the truth that Jesus Christ is our peace and reconciliation
(cf. Eph 2: 14; Rom 5: 11), aware of the call entrusted to us in the spirit
of Christs Gospel, we wish to make our contribution to the work of rapprochement
between our Churches and reconciliation between our nations.

1. Dialogue and reconciliation

Our brotherly nations have been tied not only by long centuries of neighbourhood,
but also by the extensive Christian legacy of East and West. Aware of this
long and shared history and the tradition, which takes its roots in the
Gospel of Christ and has exerted a decisive impact on the identity, spirituality
and culture of our peoples and of the entire Europe, we enter a path of
honest dialogue in the hope that it will heal the wounds of the past, facilitate
our overcoming mutual prejudice and misunderstanding and strengthen us
in our pursuit of reconciliation.

Sin, which is the principal source of all divisions, human frailty,
individual and collective egoism as well as political pressure led to mutual
alienation, overt hostility and even struggle between our nations. Similar
circumstances had earlier led to the dissolution of the original Christian
unity. Division and schism, alien to Christs will, were a major scandal;
therefore we redouble efforts to bring our Churches and nations closer
to each other and to become more credible witnesses to the Gospel in the
contemporary world. After the Second World War and the painful experience
of atheism, which was imposed on our nations, today we enter a path of
spiritual and material renewal. If this renewal is to be longstanding,
a renewal of the human being must take place first, and through the human
being the renewal of the relations between our Churches and nations.

Fraternal dialogue is the way towards such renewal. It is to facilitate
a better understanding of each other and a reconstruction of mutual trust,
and thus lead to reconciliation. Reconciliation, in turn, presupposes a
readiness to forgive the wrongs and injustices of the past. We are obliged
to do this by the prayer: "Our Father... forgive us our trespasses as we
forgive those, who trespass against us." We call on our faithful to ask
for the forgiveness of the wrongs, injustice and all evil we have inflicted
on each other. We are confident that this is the first and foremost step
to rebuild mutual trust, a precondition for a sustainable human community
and complete reconciliation.

Naturally, to forgive does not mean to forget; memory is a significant
part of our identity. We owe this memory also to the victims of the past,
those tortured to death who laid down their lives for the faith to God
and their homeland on this earth. To forgive, however, means to forgo revenge
and hatred and to participate in the construction of concord and brotherhood
between people, our nations and countries, which is the foundation of a
peaceful future.

2. The past in the perspective of the future

The tragic events of the 20th century were experienced to a greater
or lesser degree by all the countries and nations of Europe. Our countries,
nations and Churches were painfully afflicted. The Polish and Russian people
share the experience of the Second World War and the period of repressions
imposed by the totalitarian regimes. These regimes, with their atheist
ideology, fought against all forms of religious life and waged an especially
atrocious war on Christianity and our Churches. Millions of innocent people
fell victim to this war, of which we are reminded by numerous places of
murder and graves on Polish and Russian soil. Sometimes the events of our
often difficult and tragic shared past give rise to mutual resentments
and accusations, which prevent the healing of old wounds.

An objective recognition of facts and an account of the magnitude of
the tragedies and dramas of the past is an urgent task for historians and
specialists. We appreciate the action taken by competent commissions and
teams of experts in our respective countries. We express a conviction that
their efforts will allow us to learn unadulterated historical truth, help
account for doubts and effectively overcome negative stereotypes. We express
a conviction that sustainable reconciliation as the foundation of a peaceful
future may take place exclusively on the basis of a complete truth about
our shared past. We call upon all those who pursue good, sustainable peace
and happy future: politicians, social activists, people of science, culture
and the arts, those who believe in God and those who do not, representatives
of the Churches: do not falter in your efforts to foster dialogue, support
all that facilitates the reconstruction of mutual trust and brings people
closer to one another and all that allows us to build a peaceful future
of our countries and nations, a future free from violence and wars.

3. Together in the face of new challenges

As a result of political and social transformations, at the close of
the 20th century our Churches were finally able to fulfil their mission
of evangelisation, and therefore to help our societies develop on the basis
of traditional Christian values. Throughout history, Christianity contributed
immensely to the formation of the spirituality and culture of our nations.
Today, in an era of religious indifference and widespread secularisation,
we take every effort so that the social life and culture of our nations
should not be stripped of principal moral values, the cornerstone of a
viable peaceful future.

The essential task of the Church until the end of time is the proclamation
of the Gospel of Christ. All Christians, not only the clergy, but also
the lay faithful are called to preach the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ and to proclaim the Good News with their words and through
the witness of their lives, in an individual, familial and social context.
We recognise the autonomy of secular and ecclesiastical authority, but
at the same time call for cooperation with respect to care for the family,
education, social order and other questions which are vital for the good
of the general public. We want to uphold tolerance and first and foremost
defend fundamental freedoms, primarily religious freedom, as well as to
guard the right of the presence of religion in public life.

Today our nations are faced with yet new challenges. Fundamental moral
principles based on the Ten Commandments are questioned under the pretence
of retaining the principle of secularism or the protection of freedom.
We are faced with the promotion of abortion, euthanasia and same-sex relations,
persistently shown as a form of marriage; a consumerist lifestyle is endorsed,
traditional values rejected, while religious symbols are removed from public
space. Quite often we encounter sings of hostility towards Christ, His
Gospel and Cross; attempts are made to exclude the Church from public life.
A misinterpreted secularism assumes a form of fundamentalism and in reality
is a form of atheism.

We call on everyone to respect the inalienable dignity of each human
being, created in Gods image and likeness (Gn 1: 27). In the name of the
future of our nations we call for the respect and protection of the life
of each and every human being from the moment of conception until natural
death. We believe not only terrorism and armed conflict, but also abortion
and euthanasia to be grave sins against life and a disgrace to contemporary
civilisation. The family, a permanent relation between man and woman, is
a sound foundation of all societies. As an institution founded by God (cf.
Gn 1: 28; 2:23-24), the family warrants respect and protection as it is
the cradle of life, a wholesome place of development, a guarantee of social
stability, and a sign of hope for society. The family is a place conducive
for the development of the human being who is responsible for himself,
other people and the society he is part of.

We look with sincere concern, hope and love to young people, whom we
wish to protect from demoralisation and to educate in the spirit of the
Gospel. We want to teach young people how to love God, their fellow human
beings and the earthly homeland as well as to foster in them a spirit of
Christian culture, which will bear fruit with respect, tolerance and justice.
We are certain that the Risen Christ offers hope not only for our Churches
and nations, but also for Europe and the entire world. May He grant His
grace so that each Pole can see each Russian and each Russian can see each
Pole as their friend and brother.

Both Poles and Russians have profound respect for the Holy Virgin Mary.
Having trust in the intercession of the Mother of God, we entrust to Her
care the great work of the reconciliation and rapprochement between our
Churches and nations. Recalling the words of Paul the Apostle: Christs
peace must reign in your hearts (Col 3:15), we confer on all our blessing,
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

+ Józef Michalik, Archbishop Metropolitan of Przemysl

+ Cyril Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia

Warsaw, August 17, 2012

(Translation from Radio Vaticana)

__________

The complete text of the words with which Benedict XVI, after the Angelus
on Sunday, August 19, hailed the publication of the joint message:

"In these days the patriarch of Moscow and all the Rus', Kirill I, is
a guest of the Orthodox Church in Poland. I cordially greet His Holiness,
as well as all of the Orthodox faithful. The program of this visit also
included encounters with the Catholic bishops and the common declaration
of the desire to increase the fraternal union of collaboration in spreading
the values of the Gospel in the contemporary world, in the spirit of the
same faith in Christ Jesus. This is an important event that raises hope
for the future. I entrust its fruits to the benevolence of Mary, imploring
the blessing of God."

__________

ACN News, Monday, 25th June 2012  INDIA

Miracles happen?By John Newton

REPEATED incidents of supernatural healings are a primary cause of the
massive growth of the Church in a remote corner of India  according to
the regions bishop.
Bishop John Kattrukudiyil of Itangar, Arunachal Pradesh in north-east
India, highlighted the phenomena of reported healings in explaining the
growth of the Church in his diocese from virtually no faithful to about
40 percent of the population within 35 years.

During a visit to the headquarters of the Catholic charity Aid to the
Church in Need(ACN)in Germany, the bishop described the situation in his
diocese saying: Time and time again they tell me story after story of
healings that have happened in various places. What they tell me fills
me with amazement.

The bishop, whose region of India neighbours China, Bhutan and Burma,
added: I have a lot of theological background in my studies and its easy
to become sceptical about all these kind of things, but the people are
absolutely convinced that they have received healing.
He told of one healing incident involving a man who renounced a past
spent persecuting the Church and converted to marry a Catholic girl.
Bishop Kattrukudiyil said: After becoming a Catholic the man
was asked to go and pray over a paralysed man. He was unwilling but he
still went and prayed and the next day that man rose up and walked to the
church.
He was so shocked at this miraculous experience he began to go to
church and now today he is a very active member of the parish.
However, the bishop admitted that, while he had heard many first-hand
accounts of this kind, they were often treated with scepticism when he
related them to others.

(Bishop John Thomas Kattrukudiyil of Itanagar, the capital of Arunachal
Pradesh in north east India)

He said: When I recount these stories to people in Europe and elsewhere
they say O bishop, you are telling us stories.
But he went on to describe how these experiences were deepening peoples
spiritual lives.
The bishop added: There are so many [healing] stories coming
to me which we cannot ignore.
This is the experience of a very young Church, experiencing the same
grace as that of the Church of Apostolic times.
Bishop Kattrukudiyil said: The fact that many people experienced healing
by praying to Jesus attracted many people to the Church in its early days
 that and a kind of spiritual peace that they got by belonging to the
Church.
He added: From their experience, they found that when they came together
and went to the house of someone who was sick and prayed over him the individual
experienced healing.
People who had had been suffering from various sicknesses for
a long time were healed  its really an experience of the early Church
that these people had.

According to the bishop, Christians have mushroomed in Arunachal Pradesh
over the last 35 years  from virtually no faithful to an expected 40 percent
of the total population when the 2010 census results are finally released.

The country was closed to Christian missionaries because of strict entry
permit laws  which were only revoked in the 1990s  but the situation
changed when young people in Arunachal Pradesh sought education in Catholic
schools in neighbouring Assam.
Some students at the Catholic schools asked for baptism and, with their
parents permission, received the sacrament before returning to their villages,
where the faith spread.
Some of these students were subsequently elected to government posts
and helped to change the situation.
While in many places new Catholics faced beatings, house burnings,
the slaughter of domestic animals and expulsion from of jobs or schools,
gradually things improved, and no incidents of persecution or harassment
have been recorded in the past twenty years.
Bishop Kattrukudiyil said: Today the church is not tolerated but looked
up to for her developmental works in education and health care.
The politicians use every occasion to praise the Church for her philanthropic
activities.

Bishop Kattrukudiyil thanked Aid to the Church in Need for its help
in supporting the growth of the Church through projects to build a minor
seminary, convents and chapels as well as through training for catechists
and teachers.
He said: ACN helps especially on catechesis, training, building chapels
 these are the most important areas of our activities
We always feel that ACN is there behind us willing to help us wherever
we are in need.

On Line donations can be made at www.aidtochurch.org

Where the Church's Growth Is FastestBishop From Northeast India Speaks on Christ's Appeal

ROME, FEB. 3, 2012 (Zenit.org).- The northeast corner of India is the
place where the Catholic Church has grown most over the past 30 years,
with an average of about 10,000 adult baptisms every year -- and this despite
the fact that for many generations missionaries were banned.

Mark Riedemann for Where God Weeps in cooperation with Aid to the Church
in Need spoke with a bishop from the region, John Thomas Kattrukudiyil
of Itanagar, the capital of Arunachal Pradesh.

Q: Since the 1970s the Catholic Church has exploded in this northeastern
corner of India growing today to a number a little under 200,000. To what
can we attribute this explosive growth of the Catholic faith?

Bishop Kattrukudiyil: This is a phenomenon that surprised everybody.
The Church, the government, everyone was surprised. The immediate reason
I can give was the desire of the young people of Arunachal Pradesh to profit
from the charitable activities of the Christian missionaries. They saw
the good activities done by the missionaries and since the missionaries
were not allowed in Arunachal Pradesh they thought: "well let us go out
and invite them." One thing led to another; they received baptism and they
became Christians, Catholics. Another factor is that the young were not
at all happy with their traditional religious practices. For example, they
used to have to offer many sacrifices when someone was sick. This is very
expensive and as the traditional religion imposed more and more such expenses
they then turned to the new religion, Christianity, that asked them only
to pray to Jesus. They then found that when they prayed to Jesus they were
getting healed, they were getting graces. So that helped a lot to bring
about change.

Q: Can one say that traditional religions are based on fear?

Bishop Kattrukudiyil: It is basically based on fear. They believe in
many evil spirits and these spirits control their lives and they always
have to placate these evil spirits. And how do you placate them, for example,
in an area where there is no medical help available? By offering more and
more animal sacrifices. When someone is sick, the village traditional religion
leader tells them that this is because of an evil spirit so you have to
offer 10 mithun -- the Indian bison -- for sacrifice, or five pigs or 10
cows. For a village this involves hundreds or thousands of animals and
that is a big burden on them. As soon as they saw an alternative, they
jumped on it.

Q: And the missionaries could come and say: "Have no fear, there is
one spirit, the Holy Spirit, and it's a good spirit."

Bishop Kattrukudiyil: Yes and especially in presenting him as our loving
Father in contrast to these spirits who are only there to threaten us and
to persecute us. I think that made a big difference.

Q: And this extraordinary growth in the face of the fact that in Arunachal
Pradesh, and the other sister states of northeastern India, there is an
anti-conversion law. What is the anti-conversion law and how did this come
about?

Bishop Kattrukudiyil: This anti-conversion law exists not only in the
northeast like Arunachal Pradesh but in other states like Orissa, and Pradesh.
How did this come about? This law came out of fear among a section of Hindus
that Christianity might spread all over India. It is an unfounded fear
though it may be that it is being used as a political tool in order to
win political power. Some Hindu's whip up the emotions of the Hindu majority
by saying that Hindus are in danger and thus the need to bring all the
polarized Hindus under one political apparatus and then turn that group
into a political power. This could be the political angle to the whole
story; otherwise it is unbelievable that Christians who number no more
than 2% of the population could pose a threat to a big country like India.

Q: As a consequence of not having any priests, it was the laity who
started the evangelization in Arunachal Pradesh?

Bishop Kattrukudiyil: Yes, especially the women. A priest established
a mission at the gates of Arunachal Pradesh close to the market place.
He met some of the Arunachal women and invited them to the mission. These
people were more than happy to have someone to talk to. While they were
doing their business in the market and through talking to them, he learned
a few words of their language. They trusted him. He then mentioned his
faith to them. They accepted and many of them were baptized. They went
back to their village. He mentioned too that their children were welcome
to study. So they brought their children to the mission. He put these children
in the schools. In the end this mission station became the center for baptisms.
Many people would say: "Let me go to Harmuti to get baptized" and they
would come, stay there a day or two, get baptized and go back to their
village.

Q: And as we know, today, there are hundreds

Bishop Kattrukudiyil: At least about 180,000 Catholics must be there.

Q: And 10,000 adult baptisms every year?

Bishop Kattrukudiyil: Close to that number takes place every year.

Q: What would be the most important tool in terms of the presence of
the Catholic Church in Arunachal Pradesh?

Bishop Kattrukudiyil: The government and the tribal population accept
us because of our contribution in the field of education. Everybody knows
that the whole northeast owes a great deal to the missionaries because
a large percentage of the populations who are educated have gone through
our schools.

Q: In fact, many generations coming now into leadership have passed
through these Catholic schools?

Bishop Kattrukudiyil: Many of those who initiated this anti-conversion
law have their children and grandchildren in Catholic schools. They say:
"Yes, yes it is good that the missionaries have schools for us, but not
for the poor because they may get converted." They want the poor to remain
ignorant. They just want to use the Church facilities for themselves.

Q: Only for their own purposes?

Bishop Kattrukudiyil: Yes and in fact, this tendency is seen also among
a certain sections of the elite in Arunachal Pradesh who ask me: "Bishop,
why are you wasting your time opening schools in the remote villages? You
have a very nice school in Itanagar. Put all your resources there; charge
a very high fee and we will send our children there." I say: "No, that
is not the purpose for which I am here. I would open a school in the most
remote village sooner than here in the city."

Q: And the purpose is to reach out to the poorest of the poor?

Bishop Kattrukudiyil: Yes. Accepting Christianity is a byproduct but
we would like to give these people who have been denied the basic right
to education the possibility of good education.

Q: Would you say that the primary phase of evangelization has passed
or are we still in the primary phase?

Bishop Kattrukudiyil: The expansion of the Church at a rapid phase has
slowed down. Somehow with the passage of time, the coming of missionaries,
institutionalization of the Church this rapid phase has slowed down but
the appreciation for the Church has remained and the people still keep
coming. The focus now is on consolidation like giving catechesis, and this
has its own difficulties: difficult terrain to reach the villages and the
question of language, all these dialects, every priest is not able to learn
all these dialects so we need translators and then lay catechists.

Q: The first evangelization came from the Baptists and they did a fantastic
job. You have good relations with the Baptists. Now there are new churches
coming in. How is the relationship with all these groups and how is this
inter-Christian dialogue managed?

Bishop Kattrukudiyil: The first Christians in Arunachal Pradesh were
the Baptists, however, today in terms of influence and visibility, the
Catholic Church is by far the most visible in Arunachal Pradesh. When the
government wants to deal with the Christian groups they approach the bishop
of the Catholic Church to find out what the Christians will say. I have
over time found that all the Christian groups generally and very subtly
accepted the leadership of the bishop and accepted the bishop as a representative
of the Christian groups. In fact, when they need to do something they approach
me and they follow the Catholic line in terms of all socio-political realities
despite the fact that they are keen to keep their individuality.

* * *

This interview was conducted by Mark Riedemann for "Where God Weeps,"
a weekly television and radio show produced by Catholic Radio and Television
Network in conjunction with the international Catholic charity Aid to the
Church in Need.

A Muslim Finds the Catholic Faith Through Geography
and Theology

British soccer team owner and prominent philanthropist Ilyas Khan reflects
on his conversion.
Daily News by EDWARD PENTIN 04/10/2012

Ilyas Khan

Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar was instrumental in helping
Ilyas Khan, a British philanthropist and former Muslim, to become Catholic.
But so too were many other distinctly Catholic influences, all amounting
to a pull towards the faith rather than a push away from Islam.
Khan, a merchant banker by training and the owner of the Accrington
Stanley soccer team, is also chairman of the prominent British charity
Leonard Cheshire Disability  the largest organization in the world helping
people with disabilities. In a revealing interview with Register Rome correspondent
Edward Pentin, Khan explains in more detail what drew him to the Catholic
Church in 2009.

What brought you to the faith? Was there anything in Islam, perhaps
Muslims devotion to Our Lady, which helped you to convert?Yes and no. Devotion to Our Lady on a personal basis is a big part
of my faith, but at the same time, I know it wasnt anything to do with
my upbringing as a Muslim. My first tentative steps towards Catholicism
were taken in my very early infancy. My mother was very ill at that time,
and I was raised till about the age of 3 or 4 by a grandmother who was
determinedly Catholic and Irish. I went to a Church school, and I think
that when I started classes I didnt think of myself as anything other
than being Christian.
I also benefited from being brought up in Lancashire, up on the Pennines
and close to the Ribble Valley. If there was ever a Catholic heartland
in England, that was it  the great stronghold that never really acknowledged
the Reformation.
Later on, when I was entering university, divine Providence intervened
for a second time, and I stayed at Netherhall House, which is an Opus Dei
student hall of residence in London. But, in between, say from the ages
of about 4 to 17, I had been raised as a Muslim in a Muslim household.
I had gone to mosque, learned the Quran. So, yes, I was raised a Muslim,
but I dont think there was any aspect of Islam that might have nudged
me towards becoming a Catholic.

Was that time in Netherhall very influential, in terms of bringing
you into the faith?Very much so, yes. However, at that point in time, I dont think I
had the guts to convert or be received into the Church, or even take formal
instruction. Apostasy is something Islam takes very seriously. In the eyes
of a great many, Muslims apostasy is actually (as opposed to merely theoretically)
punishable by death. So Netherhall was absolutely instrumental. I remember
very clearly my devotion to prayer was really formed there, surrounded
as I was by living examples of a wonderfully spiritual faith.

Would you say you came to the faith almost subconsciously?Not really. I think I came to my faith wholly consciously. By the age
of 18 and 19, I was a reasoning and questioning young adult. And by then
I had discovered there was a brilliant person called Hans Urs von Balthasar.
There was a library in Netherhall where I started reading theology. Thats
where I came across Origen, and, to a very large extent, thats also where
I was able to study and appreciate the work of St. Augustine. So I was
very conscious but somewhat apprehensive. Both my parents were still alive
at the time, and part of my reticence was my unwillingness to cause them
hurt. I dont know quite how I would have described myself by the time
I graduated from university, but probably a closet Catholic comes close.

What gave you the courage in the end?Apart from the Holy Spirit? A culmination of two things: a greater
degree of certainty in my own moral compass; and if there was a push away
from Islam or a pull, it was much more the pull of Christ. It wasnt ever
in my mind a negative thing [to convert]. The other important factor was
my very regular attendance, over a decade prior to my formally being received,
at a church  St. Josephs in Hong Kong. I went to live in Asia and Hong
Kong in my mid-20s, and thats where I discovered my affinity for traditional
Catholicism. The simple acts of faith  ritual, the liturgy and congregational
prayer  were the stepping stones.

Did you have a sense, in those years leading up to being received,
of a growing sense that the Catholic faith is the truth?Yes, though thats perhaps slightly melodramatic. At this stage of
my life, when my religion is at the core of what I do, its very difficult
to differentiate between any actions that might or might not be motivated
by faith. I would hope that everything I do in my life is motivated and
guided by faith. To answer your question in a slightly different way: I
never doubted, from about my mid-20s onwards, that I was a Christian, and
my path towards Catholicism, as opposed to Christianity per se, was really
quite a quick one. In retrospect, the heart of that journey actually took
four or five years and was more academically or intellectually based. I
have to say it was Von Balthasar who guided me.

Were Blessed John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI also influential?
Both have been described as so-called Balthasarians.Thats a really good question. Ive never been asked that question
before. Yes, well, Cardinal Ratzinger, the current Pope, definitely qualifies
as being Balthasarian, and Blessed John Paul II raised Balthasar to becoming
a cardinal. Obviously, John Paul II was an influence beyond his regard
for Von Balthasar  how could one not be influenced by such a great man?
Like a great many people, Balthasar himself was not just a gigantic intellect,
but also articulated how the mystery of faith is central to our lives as
Christians. And, in that regard, the single most moving moment for me happened
when I was in my mid-30s. I was walking past the Pieta in St. Peters,
and I remember being literally arrested in my tracks by a combination of
four or five things all at once. You asked me about my relationship with
the Blessed Mother of God  well, that moment in time was really important.
That can be described as being the turning point.

Was it the beauty of the Pietà that struck you?Yes  and the context. This is God, I thought. This really is God.
You must remember that one of the big things when we look at traditional
Islam is the heresy  in their opinion  of equating the mortal Jesus with
God. And if there is ever an obstacle that a Muslim convert has to contend
with, intellectually and emotionally, more than anything else, that is
it. At that moment, in front of the Pietà, I realized, through sheer
emotion, that the truth of our religion is so simple and so direct.

You mean the fact that Jesus is not just a prophet, but God Himself?Yes, absolutely, and I think at that moment  I remember it distinctly;
it still moves me to tears  there was no doubt in my mind. It was so clear.
Im afraid it would be impossible for me to articulate that feeling in
mere words. If there was a before and an after, then that was my point
of arrival, so to speak.

In terms of being concerned about the apostasy charge from Muslims
 is it something that keeps you up at night?No, not at all. It doesnt keep me up at night. However, I can tell
you where it becomes relevant: In various different forums  in articles,
magazines and on radio and once or twice on TV  I have tended to get a
fair degree of coverage in Britain, where Im also well known as the owner
of one of our best-known football teams. I get described with a standard
tagline saying something like: The most prominent recent Catholic convert.
Whilst there have been many times when I have been on the receiving end
of threats from individual Muslims or Islamic organizations who might read
and react to these articles and interviews, I have to say that those occasions
have absolutely never kept me up at night. I have received my fair share
of hate mail and threats of violence, but I conduct myself with what I
hope is a simple dignity and refuse to be drawn into a life governed by
fear or undue caution.
Conversely, what I am interested in is where Islam and Catholicism
meet; here, there is a degree of commonality. And my attitude is to exhibit
for those who are not Catholics the beauty, purity, wonder and the privilege
of being a Catholic. Im just very straightforward and calm about this
issue, and thats a reflection of my faith.

Some prominent converts from Islam can be very negative towards their
former religion, but you dont seem to have that view.My views have the benefit of being blessedly simple. I dont think
theres any complexity in my faith, and, as I said earlier, I was pulled
towards my Christian faith, not pushed away from Islam.
However, I must admit that I do have a great deal of sadness in my
heart when I contemplate people who use Islam to justify their actions.
These actions arent just un-Islamic  they are inhuman and have nothing
to do with my view of Islam as a religion. Sadly, there appear to be a
very large number of Muslims for whom anger and violence seem intuitive
first responses to anything they dont agree with. Beyond that, I feel
that the two religions, Islam and Christianity, might be described as distant
cousins. Remember, I was raised a Muslim, and I have been to Medina and
Mecca, and I can see some of the inherent qualities. But we must also admit
that the point of departure, the difference between the two religions,
is vast. So while there are similarities, and I can see them, they dont
count really for very much. I celebrate the fact that Jesus Christ is
love. Its a simple statement. It is the defining difference.

And it is very simple in its totality.Yes, it is; but then the thing we call love, that we as Christians
concern ourselves (with) at the heart of our faith, is a living, real and
tangible quality. Jesus is actually with us; we dont need metaphors or
vague conceptual examples of what love might be in order to inspire or
inform us. We are blessed by the Holy Sacrament and nourished by the direct
intercession of Our Lord through his sacrifice. In that regard, Von Balthasar
has helped to change the basis of conversation about the relationship between
the Church, Christ and the Holy Spirit. He created a new understanding
around the semantics of love in a religious context. I, therefore, cant
really say much about the contrasts between Catholicism and other religions,
be they Islam or Hinduism, for example, but simply affirm the unerring
simplicity of my own faith.

Edward Pentin writes from Rome

Pope says personal conversion is first step of New
Evangelization

By David Ker
Pope Benedict XVI. Credit: Mazur.

Vatican City, May 24, 2012 / 03:48 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict
XVI told the bishops of Italy today that personal holiness is an indispensable
first step to reconverting their country and the Western world to Christianity. "The fundamental condition in order to be able to speak about God is
to speak with God, increasingly to become men of God, nourished by an intense
life of prayer and molded by his grace, the Pope said on May 24.
He encouraged his fellow bishops to allow themselves to be found and
seized by God so as to help the people we meet be touched by the Truth.
Pope Benedict made his remarks to the participants of the 64th General
Assembly of the Italian Episcopal Conference, which is being held May 21--25.
The Italian bishops gathered in the Vaticans Synod Hall, where they
heard the Pope lament how for many people in the West, God has become
the great Unknown and Jesus is simply an important figure of the past.
The Pope said that this is resulting in people no longer understanding
the profound value  of the spiritual and moral patrimony that the Wests
roots are in and that is its lifeblood. What was once fertile land,
he said, is now at risk of becoming a barren desert and the good seed
(is in danger) of being suffocated, trampled on and lost.
Even many baptized people in the West have lost their identity and
do not know the essential contents of the faith, or they believe they
can cultivate faith without ecclesial mediation, he warned the bishops.

The practical impact of this, Pope Benedict said, is that while many
baptized look doubtfully at Church teaching, others have reduced the
Kingdom of God to certain broad values, which are certainly related to
the Gospel but which do not touch the central nucleus of Christian faith.
But the Pope did not finish his remarks without offering a solution
to the Italian bishops.
He pointed them to the New Evangelization, which has its roots in the
prophetic words of Pope John XXIII. At the opening of the Second Vatican
Council in 1962, John XXIII said that the council would help transmit
pure and integral doctrine, without any attenuation or misrepresentation
but in a new way according to what is required by our times.
This, explained Pope Benedict, is the key or hermeneutic of continuity
and reform required to properly understand the council today.
He repeated, though, that any new evangelization will not be achieved
simply by new methods of announcing the Gospel or by pastoral activity
but only through personal conversion.
We must begin again from God, celebrated, professed and witnessed,
said the Pope. Our primary task, our true and only task, remains that
of dedicating our lives to the one thing that is truly dependable, necessary
and ultimate.
Before concluding with a prayer to the Holy Spirit, Pope Benedict assured
the bishops that the Catholic faith preached by word and example still
has the power to draw all people to Christ.
Where space is given to the Gospel, and therefore to friendship with
Christ, man realizes he is the object of a love which purifies, warms,
renews, and makes us capable of serving mankind with divine love, he said.

At last! A judge who fights for marriage: Senior family
court judge campaigns to break Britain's 'divorce addiction'

Sir Paul Coleridge said family breakdown is 'destructive' to society

Tomorrow the judge will launch a campaign to promote marriage

He voiced concern over the 'Hello! magazine, Hollywood image' of marriage

High Court judge Sir Paul Coleridge, who was assigned to the Family
Division, said family breakdown is 'destructive'.
Britons have an addiction to divorce fuelled by a 'Hello! magazine'
attitude to marriage, a top judge has warned.

Sir Paul Coleridge said family breakdown was 'one of the most destructive
scourges of our time'.
Citing growing evidence of harm to a generation of children, he said
youngsters whose parents separated saw their educational achievements and
job prospects damaged.
In a highly unusual move for a serving judge, Sir Paul will tomorrow
launch a campaign  backed by senior legal figures and Church leaders 
to promote marriage.
There was 'incontrovertible' proof that married couples were more likely
to stay together, he said.

Sir Paul, one of the most senior family court judges, voiced particular
concern over what he called the 'Hello! magazine, Hollywood image' of marriage,
saying: 'The more we have spent on weddings, the greater the rate of family
breakdown.'
And he also warned that a trend for older couples to split once children
leave home was having an 'extremely emotionally disturbing' impact on families.
Sir Paul's campaign is expected to be supported by the Archbishop of
York, Dr John Sentamu and the Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks, while patrons of
the campaign include former chief family law judge Baroness Butler-Sloss,
family lawyer and academic Baroness Deech and Baroness Shackleton, the
divorce lawyer who acted for Prince Charles and Sir Paul McCartney.

The judge warned that courts had 'streamlined' family cases to contend
with the growing numbers, making it too easy for couples to split  suggesting
they should be required to go through counselling and mediation.
'We don't traditionally comment on matters of policy, but there are
very few people who have had as much experience of what is going on as
the family judiciary,' he told the Daily Mail.
'We have watched it get worse and worse and worse. The time for sucking
our teeth is over. Waiting for government or others to take action is merely
an excuse for moaning and inactivity.'
According to official figures, there were 400,000 cases heard in the
family courts in 2010 and 120,000 divorces, up 5 per cent on the previous
year.

A report will say there is now overwhelming evidence that married relationships
are more stable and the children of such relationships fare better.
There were 241,000 marriages in 2010, a near 100-year low. Some 22
per cent of marriages in 1970 had ended in divorce by the 15th wedding
anniversary, whereas 33 per cent of marriages now end in the same period.
Cohabitation, meanwhile, rose from a million couples in 2001 to 2.9million
in 2010  and it is projected to rise to 3.7million by 2031.
'Marriage is not something that falls out of the sky ready-made
on to beautiful people in white linen suits, it involves endless hard work
and love'- Lord Justice Coleridge

Referring to the 'Hello! magazine' attitude, he said: 'Marriage is not
something that falls out of the sky ready-made on to beautiful people in
white linen suits.
'It involves endless hard work, compromises, forgiveness and love.However
right the person is, they might not be right two years later. It doesn't
matter how wonderful you appear to be to your partner at the beginning,
you will begin to display faults that we all have.
'In order for a relationship to last, you have to hang in there and
adjust and change and alter and understand. Long, stable marriages are
carved out of the rock of human stubbornness and selfishness and difficulties.'

Sir Paul, 62, who has been married for nearly 40 years and has three
children and three grandchildren, also warned of the rise in so-called
'silver splitters'  couples who separate late in life, often when their
children leave home. In the past decade divorce among the over-50s has
risen by 10 per cent.
'It is very sad that we now see such a huge number of people in their
50s, 60s and 70s getting divorced and carving up their estates and their
lives,' he said.

'There has been a dramatic increase. The truth is that people
think it's fine to do that once children are grown up. It probably isn't
as destructive as when as child is 12, but if you speak to those in their
20s or 30s who experience their parents breaking up long after they have
left home, they will tell you almost always that it's an extremely emotionally
disturbing thing for them, and indeed for any grandchildren. It creates
huge sensitivities. The tectonic plates of a family shift.'
Sir Paul said he backed proposals to make it compulsory for anyone
wishing to apply to the courts over an acrimonious separation to attend
mediation or counselling.
Tory ministers have suggested that separating couples should be made
to understand the impact of conflict on children.
But the judge suggested a wider shake up of the law, which he said
dated back to the 1950s.

'The law and the courts have undoubtedly played a part, because in order
to manage the enormous flood of cases we have had to streamline the law
and the process. There is no such thing as a defended divorce any longer.
We see that the fight is no longer over the divorce itself, but over money
and children,' he said.
Sir Paul said he was not interested in 'preaching' or pronouncing moral
judgments. And he defended the right of judges to speak out on issues of
concern in which they had expertise.
It was the same, he said, as doctors alerting the public to an epidemic
they had detected. 'It would be irresponsible to remain quiet. This is
an exceptional situation,' he said.
The Marriage Foundation, the new campaign group he will lead, will
accept divorce is sometimes unavoidable and will not argue that those who
make a sustained commitment to one another outside marriage are in some
way inferior.

'This is not going to be a cosy club for the smug and self-satisfied
of middle England but, we hope, the start of a national movement with the
aim of changing attitudes across the board from the very top to the bottom
of society, and thus improve the lives of us all, especially children,'
the judge said.
Instead, the campaign will seek to promote marriage as the 'gold standard'
for relationships that benefit couples, children and wider society.
A report to be published by the foundation will say there is now overwhelming
evidence that married relationships are more stable and the children of
such relationships fare better.
A baby born to cohabiting parents is more than ten times more likely
to see its parents separate than one born to married parents.

Among natural parents, almost 90 per cent of married couples were still
together when their children were seven compared with just 69 per cent
of couples who were cohabiting. Almost one in four children living with
cohabiting parents as a baby, meanwhile, was in lone-mother families by
the age of seven compared with only one in ten living with married parents.
The costs and consequences for society, the foundation will say, are
unsustainable.
Half a million children and adults are drawn into the family law and
justice system every year, with 3.8million children currently caught up
in the family justice system.
The financial cost to society of broken relationships is estimated
to be £44billion a year. Research by the Youth Justice Board suggests
70 per cent of young offenders are from broken families.
The positive benefits of marriage include higher incomes and greater
accumulation of wealth, avoiding the loss of income that tends to follow
a breakdown.
Marriage also improves health, with one study suggesting the health
gain may be as large as the benefit from giving up smoking.

The five champions of marriage
The five key members of the Marriage Foundation have notched up some
204 years of married life between them.

Lord Justice Coleridge, 62
Has been married to Judith for 39 years. They have two sons and one
daughter.
Sir Paul Coleridge was privately educated at Cranleigh School, Surrey,
and called to the bar in 1970.
He married his wife, a boatbuilder's daughter, in a simple ceremony
 with a reception in a boatyard  in 1973. He has speculated that expensive
weddings create a greater risk of family breakdown.
He has previously said that 'splitting families is like splitting the
atom. You get enormous quantities of pent-up emotional energies that spill
out and are completely unpredictable, plus all sorts of collateral damage
that nobody expected'.

Baroness Deech, 69
Has been married to Dr John Stewart for 45 years. They have one daughter.
Ruth Deech was ennobled as Baroness Deech of Cumnor in Oxfordshire
in 2005.
Her father was a historian and journalist who fled the Nazis in Vienna
and her family arrived in Britain on September 3, 1939, the day war was
declared on Germany.
Lady Deech believes the number of weddings has fallen to its lowest
level since 1895 because 'religion is a waning force, women have financial
independence, there is state support for lone parents, children are no
longer classified as illegitimate, divorce is easy and there is no recrimination
over sex and birth out of wedlock'.

Lord Justice Toulson, 65
Has been married to Elizabeth for 39 years. They have two sons and
two daughters.
Sir Roger Toulson was appointed as a Lord Justice of Appeal in January
2007 after a distinguished 38-year career in the law.
He is patron of several charities, including Time for Families, a Christian
charity that supports families, and Keep Out, a scheme aimed at rehabilitating
young offenders.
In a case in which a morbidly obese man argued that his local health
authority should fund his fat-reducing surgery, he said: 'Human rights
law is sometimes in danger of becoming over-complicated.'

Baroness Shackleton, 55
Has been married to Ian Ridgeway Shackleton for 27 years. They have
two daughters.
Fiona Shackleton is the personal solicitor to Princes William and Harry.
She has been nicknamed 'the Steel Magnolia' for her toughness and has handled
high-profile divorces, including those of the Prince of Wales and Diana,
the Duke and Duchess of York and Sir Paul and Lady McCartney.
She has been quoted as saying: 'I like sticking up for people, making
sure they are not taken advantage of. Even if they are incredibly rich.'

Baroness Butler-Sloss, 78
Has been married to Joseph Butler-Sloss for 54 years. They have two
sons and one daughter.
Elizabeth Butler-Sloss was the most senior woman judge in Britain until
her retirement.
She made many controversial decisions, including blocking a man's legal
battle to see his test-tube baby daughter, conceived after he broke up
with her mother.
When criticised by Fathers 4 Justice, she said: 'I cannot meet [them]
because they are not being sensible, and as long as they throw condoms
with purple powder and send a double-decker bus with a loudspeaker outside
my private house in the West Country there is no point.'

South Korea, the Asian Tiger
of the Church

The number of Catholics there is growing at a staggering pace. With
many thousands of new baptized adults every year. The report of a great
missionary

by Sandro Magister

ROME, April 18, 2012  The seven years of pontificate that Benedict
XVI will mark tomorrow are associated, in common opinion, with the general
decline of the Church.

But this opinion is nurtured by a view restricted to the Christianity
of the Old Continent: to a Europe that in effect has suffered the blows
of a growing secularization.
If one simply widens the perspective, in fact, the reality appears
different. In the past century the Catholic Church has experienced the
most extraordinary phase of missionary expansion in its history.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, in sub-Saharan Africa there
were fewer than 2 million Catholics. A hundred years later, there were
130 million.
And also on a worldwide scale, the twentieth century was for the Church
a century of numeric explosion. From 266 million at the beginning of the
1900s, Catholics reached 1.1 billion a hundred years later. An increase
of a factor of four, more than the parallel increase of the planet's
population.
It is an expansion that shows no sign of stopping, and began in the
1800s, precisely when the Catholic Church in Europe was undergoing the
attacks of a culture and of powers strongly hostile to Christianity.
Today the context is analogous. For the Catholic Church in Europe,
these are lean years. But in other regions of the world it is the opposite.
South Korea, for example, is a country in which Catholicism is growing
at a dizzying pace. And precisely among the most active and "modern" strata
of the population.
The report that follows  published on Easter by the newspaper of the
Italian Episcopal conference, "Avvenire"  was written by one of the leading
experts on Catholic missions in the world. A missionary himself, Fr. Piero
Gheddo is today the director, in Rome, of the historical office of the
Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions.
He is the author of numerous volumes and collaborated in the drafting
of the 1990 encyclical "Redemptoris Missio of by John Paul II.
__________

SEOUL, AN EASTER FOR THE RECORD BOOKSby Piero Gheddo

There may be no other country in the world that over the past half century
has seen growth as sustained as that of South Korea, including conversions
to Christ.

From 1960 to 2010, the number of inhabitants went from 23 to 48 million;
per capita income from 1,300 to 19,500 dollars; Christians from 2 to 30
percent, of which about 10-11 percent, 5.5 million, are Catholic; there
were 250 Korean priests, today there are 5,000.

I first went to South Korea in 1986 with Fr. Pino Cazzaniga, a missionary
of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions in Japan, who speaks Korean.
Even back then it was a Church with many conversions, and it is still
so today. Every parish has from 200 to 400 baptisms of converts from Buddhism
each year. Most of the converts are city dwellers. Each year there are
130-150 new priests, one for every 1,110 baptized. In 2008, the proportion
of Catholics exceeded 10 percent of South Koreans, and grows by about 3
percent each year. In 2009, the number of baptized reached 157,000, and
149 priests were ordained, 21 more than in 2008. More than two thirds of
the priests are under the age of 40. "Over the past ten years, the Catholic
Church in Korea has gone from three to five million faithful; in Seoul
we are 14 percent," Cardinal Nicholas Cheong Jin-suk, archbishop of Seoul,
has said in an interview.

The Catholic Church in South Korea is the one that is growing most vigorously
in Asia. There is full religious freedom in South Korea, and the secretary
of the Korean episcopal conference, Bishop Simon E. Chen, told me that
Koreans demonstrate a strong propensity for Christianity, because it introduces
the idea of the equality of all human beings created by the one God. Moreover,
both Catholics and Protestants participated in the popular movement against
the military dictatorship, between 1961 and 1987, while Confucianism and
Buddhism promote obedience to the established authority. Also, Christianity
is the religion of a personal God made man to save us, while shamanism,
Buddhism, and Confucianism are not even religions, but systems of human
wisdom and of life. Finally, after the war between North and South Korea
(1950 to 1953), South Korea, thanks to American aid, saw extremely rapid
economic, social, and civil development, becoming in every way an advanced
and even rich country, in which the ancient religions do not provide answers
to the problems of modern life.

One characteristic of the Korean Church is the excellent collaboration
of the laity in evangelization. The Church was born in Korea from a few
Korean philosophers and diplomats who emigrated, converted to Christianity
in Beijing, and then, after returning home, propagated the faith and baptized.
From 1779 to 1836, when the first French missionaries arrived, Christians
spread and then the persecutions came, but the habit of collaborating with
the Church has remained. Today in Korea, someone who converts knows that
he must join one of the groups, associations, or movements of the parish.
The "passive" Catholic is not recognized. In Seoul, where there are more
than 200 parishes, I was in the parish of the Salesians of Kuro 3-Dong,
in a working class area on the outskirts of the city. The Catholics, already
in 1986, were 9,537 out of about 150,000 inhabitants, and there were almost
600 baptisms of adult converts each year.

The pastor, Fr. Paul Kim Bo Rok, told me: "In the parish we are two
priests and four sisters, but the real work of mission and religious instruction
is done by the laity, both in the eight courses of catechesis, taught at
different times and by different people, and in the very active ecclesial
movements, especially the Legion of Mary. Each year, we celebrate two or
three rites of collective baptism of adults: each time the baptized are
200, 300, or even more, after about a year of catechumenate: that's not
much, but we can't allow any more time because of the many requests for
religious instruction. Deeper formation in the faith is given after Baptism,
and is the task of the ecclesial movements. Becoming Christian means entering
into a group that draws you in deeply, gives you norms of behavior and
effort, gives you prayers to say every day. When one enters the Church
one accepts everything. This is the Korean spirit: either you accept and
commit yourself, or you don't accept and go away."

Fr. Paul continues: "In Korea, religion is something serious and demanding.
It is true that there is the danger of formalism, but it is the entire
culture of the people that is set up this way. Moreover, Christianity is
the primary force that emphasizes the personal conscience and the freedom
of the person. What are coming, instead, are threats opposite to formalism:
secularism and practical materialism, which draw people away from the religious
spirit. South Korea is seeing prodigious economic development, the poverty
of thirty years ago has disappeared: today for us there is the passage
to abundance and even to wealth. We must react with a deeper and more personal
Christian formation. We are overwhelmed by the wave of conversions, and
we are asking the Christian world at least for the aid of prayer."

Baptisms are generally administered at Easter, Pentecost, and Christmas.
In the parish of Bang Rim Dong in Kwangiù, on Easter of 1986 I participated
in the Mass and in the Baptism of 114 adults with their children. A celebration
of the people, with a long procession of men and women, boys and girls,
dressed in white to receive Baptism. Songs, music, so much joy. In the
Korean Catholic Church, the program "Evangelization Twenty Twenty," the
effort to convert 20 percent of South Koreans by 2020, is in full swing.
They might not make it there, but the launch of this program in 2008 demonstrates
of itself the enthusiastic faith of the baptized laity, because they are
the driving force, and everyone knows it.

At Easter of this year, on Sunday, April 8, in Korea and in the world
of the missions, tens of thousands of catechumens again entered the Church.
Never be pessimistic about the future of Christianity and of the Catholic
Church. We of the Old Continent are going through a crisis in our faith,
but in the young Churches the action of the Holy Spirit is giving us an
injection of hope and of Paschal joy.

Cardinal urges Catholics to wear a cross with pride

Christian workers in England have been disciplined for wearing crosses,
but Cardinal O'Brien is determined that things will be different in Scotland.United Kingdom:
Christians should wear a cross on their clothes every day as a symbol
of their beliefs, according to the head of the Catholic church in Scotland.
In his Easter Sunday homily, Cardinal Keith OBrien called on Christians
to make the cross more prominent in their lives.

Speaking at Edinburghs St Marys Cathedral , he told them to wear
proudly a symbol of the cross of Christ on their garments each and every
day of their lives.

I know that many of you do wear such a cross of Christ, not in any
ostentatious way, not in a way that might harm you at your work or recreation,
but a simple indication that you value the role of Jesus Christ in the
history of the world, that you are trying to live by Christs standards
in your own daily life.

Two women who say they were discriminated against when their employers
barred them from wearing the symbol are fighting to get their cases heard
at the European Court of Human Rights.

Nadia Eweida, 59, of Twickenham, south west London, was suspended by
British Airways for breaching its uniform code in 2006.

Shirley Chaplin, 56, from Exeter, was barred from working on wards by
Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Trust after refusing to hide the cross she wore
on a necklace chain.

Cardinal OBrien quoted Pope Benedict XVI, who said Christians need
to be free to act in accordance with their own principles.

Jewish Shroud Expert Teaches at Pontifical University

Photographer From '78 Scientific Examination Speaks of Proofs of
Authenticity

By Andrew Dalton, LC

ROME, MARCH 22, 2012 (Zenit.org).- Barrie Schwortz was the Official
Documenting Photographer for the Shroud of Turin Research Project (STURP),
the team that conducted the first in-depth scientific examination of the
Shroud in 1978.

In this interview, Schwortz tells ZENIT how Shroud science has influenced
his own faith.

ZENIT: You just finished teaching a week-long course as part of
the Diploma in Shroud Studies from the Science and Faith Institute of the
Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum, in collaboration with Othonia
and the International Center of Sindonology in Turin. What has that
experience meant for you?

Schwortz: Probably the best part of the experience is the warm
reception that Im given by the faculty and students. That makes me feel
that being here is very worthwhile. The response from the students
is always so positive.

Of course, being Jewish, its sort of ironic. The first time they asked
me [to teach], I said, So, how often do you bring Jews to teach future
priests about the Shroud? We all laughed about that.

It really is a great honor. For me, it makes the work that Ive done
with the Shroud over all these years really meaningful and not just for
myself but obviously for the students. And when you are doing something
that is of value to other people, thats a great blessing in its own right.

ZENIT: How long did it take for you come accept the Shroud of Turin
as the authentic one belonging to Jesus in the 1stcentury?

Schwortz: At the very beginning of my involvement with the Shroud, I
was very skeptical about its authenticity. I had no emotional attachment
to Jesus and the subject matter because I was raised as an Orthodox Jew.
The main thing I knew about Jesus in those days was that he also was Jewish,
and that was about it.

Examining the Shroud, I knew quickly that it wasnt a painting because
when you are up close and you see it, you can tell its not a painting.
But as far as its authenticity, it took another 18 years after we finished
our examination and all the papers were published.

I still wasnt completely convinced until one of our fellow team members,
Allen Adler, another Jewish man who was a blood chemist, explained to me
why the blood remained red on the Shroud. I felt that old blood was
supposed to be black or brown. The blood on the Shroud is a red-crimson
color. So that was a deal breaker for me for a long time. But ultimately,
when that was explained to me and especially from my friend Al Adler, may
he rest in peace, who also was involved in this not so much from a religious
point of view as from a purely scientific point of view, he was the one
who put the last piece of the puzzle in for me. It was a shock to me when
I came to the conclusion after almost 20 years that this piece of cloth
was authentic. And I got there based solely on the science.

ZENIT: Regarding the argument for authenticity, do the results
from the 1988 radiocarbon dating remain a thorn in the Shrouds side?

Schwortz: It is the primary piece of evidence that points in the opposite
direction, but of course I had the benefit by 1988 of having more than
10 years of study, and I knew about historical objects like the Hungarian
Pray Codex that indicate this cloth was around much earlier than the earliest
dates given by the carbon dating.

Now Im not a physicist, so I didnt necessarily understand why the
radiocarbon dating was so skewed. It bothered me, and of course it was
a huge setback because for the 10 years after we examined the cloth, the
consensus publicly was, This thing is probably real. And then the carbon
dating came out and it knocked it down. And from that point forward the
world began to believe that it couldnt be authentic.

This was frustrating for me because the evidence is so powerful in my
mind that this has to be the real thing. As Sherlock Holmes said,
eliminate the impossible, and whatever remains, however improbable, must
be the truth.

ZENIT: What would you say is the message or meaning of the Shroud?

Schwortz: I always say, the Shroud did not come with a book of instructions,
and consequently, the meaning isnt on the cloth but in the eye and in
the heart of the beholder. Each person has to regard it, study it or not,
and make up his own mind. Its not the kind of thing that forces
itself upon you, and I think thats as it should be. It will not
push to open your heart. You have to open your heart to it.

For me, once I came to the conclusion from the science that it was authentic,
I came to understand how meaningful it is. This is like a forensic document
of the Passion, and for Christians around the world this has got to be
the most significant relic because it accurately documents everything that
is told in the Gospels of what was done to Jesus.

I think that theres plenty of evidence there to support the belief
that this cloth wrapped the body of the historic Jesus. It doesnt
speak to whether or not he was the Messiah. Again, thats a test not so
much for science but for faith.

ZENIT: Was your progressive discovery of Shroud data accompanied
by a journey of faith?

Schwortz: When I first got involved, I was ... well, I dont have a
label for it. I knew about God, but I didnt really think about God.
I hadnt thought about God since I was 13 and had my bar mitzvah, and there
was really no real religious foundation for that. It was almost an obligation
to my family. It was very important to them, but for me it didnt
have much significance. I walked away from faith and religion and God,
and I really didnt look back until I was almost 50 years old.

Once I came to the conclusion that the Shroud was authentic, which was
in 1995, I built shroud.com. And in working with that and collecting
this material and making it available to the public, I began to speak publically
about the Shroud around 1996. And as soon as I stood up and said,
I believe this is authentic, the questions changed, and everyone asked
me, Well, what do you believe? And they werent talking about the Shroud.
They were talking about faith in God.

For me this has always been about the truth and about being honest with
people and making it available even if it doesnt represent my personal
beliefs. I think all Christians have the right to know that the evidence
does point to its authenticity.

So when people started asking me what I believe, I didnt have an answer.
I was clueless to what I believed. I had not really regarded it in my life
as an adult. It forced me to confront my beliefs for the first time.

And it didnt take very long because I was raised in an Orthodox Jewish
home where God was part of everything every day, like Fiddler on the Roof.
So I came to the conclusion when I looked: God was there just patiently
waiting for me to acknowledge him. When I looked in my heart, he
was there. It was a shock. I was really surprised to see that
deep down inside I had this faith in a higher power, in God, all along.
Its just that I had virtually ignored it through the first part of my
adult life, and there at age 50, I suddenly came face to face with God
in my own heart.

And so the Shroud, in essence, was the catalyst for that. How
many Jews can say the Shroud of Turin brought them back to their faith
in God? Its had great significance in my own life not just from
the obvious intellectual point of view but also from a spiritual point
of view, in that it reconnected me with something thats very important
to me, and thats my own faith in God.

ZENIT: What future goals do you have for shroud.com?

Schwortz: About three years ago, back in 2009, I formed a non-profit
organization. I was concerned that, should something happen to me,
the ownership of these materials would come into question.

I didnt want to burden my son with trying to figure out what should
be done with it, so I formed STERA, Shroud of Turin Education and Research
Association. The primary function of STERA is to educate people through
shroud.com, which just hit its 16th anniversary this year.

Some of the other STURP team members who have passed away have left
to me their collections, so our biggest upcoming project is to raise the
funds to digitally archive all their materials, and ultimately make those
available through shroud.com. Once archived and in one place, future
researchers can have access to this material at no cost.

I think that the future of STERA is to continue that work even when
I am gone. I have a great board of directors, with many well-known
Shroud scholars. Hopefully this will make it very clear after Im
gone that the ownership is not in question. It belongs to STERA:
the Web site, all of my photographs. All of that has been legally
transferred to STERA so that, if something happens to me, the people are
in place who can carry the work forward.

Ash
Wednesday not just for Catholics anymore

BY DAVID OLSON
The Press EnterprisePublished:
21 February 2012 10:17 PM

Dont assume
every ash-marked forehead you see today belongs to a Catholic.Ash Wednesday,
long associated with Catholicism, is increasingly observed in Protestant
churches.The Rev. Joe
DeRoulhac became senior minister of Redlands First Baptist Church in 1989
but didnt preside over Ash Wednesday services there until 2003. The idea
came from an interfaith Ash Wednesday event he participated in a year or
two before.DeRoulhac
said theres an increasing desire among Protestants to look anew at ancient
Christian practices that previously were identified with Catholics.Part of this
is retrieving from the past rituals that might help us today to fully experience
the significance of our faith, he said. Its our common heritage.As in the
Roman Catholic Church, ashes are typically seen as signs of repentance
and mortality, and Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, the 40 days
 except Sundays  leading up to Easter.Even a small
number of evangelical churches have begun holding Ash Wednesday services,
said the Rev. Kurt Fredrickson, an associate dean at Fuller Theological
Seminary, an evangelical institution in Pasadena.Evangelicals
historically have avoided practices viewed as Catholic, he said. Today,
theres general acceptance among evangelicals that Catholics are fellow
Christians and they see less of a need to distance themselves from Catholics,
he said.Changes in
the Catholic Church after the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s helped
reduce the sense of difference Protestants felt toward Catholics, said
the Rev. Sheryl Kujawa-Holbrook, a professor at Claremont School of Theology
and an expert on Christian history. In addition, prejudice against Catholics
has waned and interfaith dialogue has increased, she said.Kujawa-Holbrook
said the placement of ashes was rare through the five centuries after the
Protestant Reformation until the past few decades, except among Anglicans,
many of whom do not consider themselves Protestant.The Anglican
Communion, called the Episcopal Church in the United States, has similar
rituals as the Roman Catholic Church and has observed Ash Wednesday since
its 16{+t}{+h} Century beginnings.The Rev. Bill
Dunn said that when he presides over Ash Wednesday services at St. Stephens
Episcopal Church in Beaumont, he thinks of how his forebears did so throughout
the centuries  and how similar rituals in other denominations illustrate
how much Christians of different faith traditions have in common.Ash Wednesday
attendance at St. Stephens approaches that of Sunday worship, Dunn said.
Many Catholic churches are jammed on Ash Wednesday, with special services
and Masses scheduled throughout the day.Yet in many
Protestant congregations, the observance takes getting used to.First Christian
Church of Riverside, a Disciples of Christ congregation, has tried Ash
Wednesday services a few times in the nearly three decades the Rev. Chris
Nettles has been there but hasnt had one in several years.Nobody comes
out, Nettles said. You get 10, 15 people.Even at some
Inland congregations that have held Ash Wednesday services continuously
for years, the pews are usually only half or a quarter full, clergy say.This is something
new and different for many people in our congregation, said First Baptists
DeRoulhac.First Baptist
member Wendy Peske, 33, didnt grow up observing Ash Wednesday but she
has made a point of attending the service with her husband and their now-3-year-old
daughter.When we leave
the service, our daughter is asking us, Whats that on your head? What
does that mean? Peske said. Its a good way of talking to her about
Jesus and what he did for us.The Rev. Sharon
Graff, pastor of Redlands United Church of Christ, said rituals draw congregants
into a lesson in a way that words from the pulpit sometimes cannot. She
sees the ashes as symbolic of the eternal soul as well as repentance.We ponder
how it is that we are made of dirt, how it is we are made of the dust of
the ground, but also infused with the spirit of God, Graff said. Yes,
our bodies will decay, but we dont decay.

India: Catholics Seen As Threat, Says Cardinal Alencherry

Written by: UCAN
February 20, 2012
By Alessandro Speciale
Extremist groups in India see the growth of the Catholic Church as
a threat and have successfully lobbied the government against Christians
rights, the newly elevated Cardinal of the Syro-Malabar Church George Alencherry
warned in an interview with ucanews.com in Rome.
Alencherry was among the 22 new cardinals created yesterday by Pope
Benedict XVI in St Peters Basilica. Most of the new princes of the Church
come from the Curia and from Europe. Only two  Alencherry and the bishop
of Hong Kong, John Tong Hon  come from Asia.
In his homily, the pope warned the new cardinals that their duty is
serving God and others and urged them to be self-giving, rejecting
the power and glory which belongs to this world.
After weeks of document leaks inside the Vatican and rumors of power
struggles, plots and even a possible resignation by the pontiff, Pope Benedict
also asked cardinals to pray for him, that he may continually offer to
the people of God the witness of sound doctrine and to guide holy Church
with a firm and humble hand.
Speaking ahead of yesterdays ceremony, Archbishop Alencherry said
he looked at his entrance into the College of Cardinals  who will eventually
be called to elect Pope Benedicts successor  with a spirit of service.
I am really searching what I can do for the Church, especially at
the universal level.
He said that though Christians in India are a small minority  Catholics
account for only 1.9 percent of the population  their strong faith and
their communion can send a strong message to the whole Church.
The tradition is strong, the faithful are ready to pay any price for
their being Catholic, he said.
Archbishop Alencherry stressed that religious extremists are a small
minority of Indias Hindus and Muslims, but they have been responsible
for atrocious attacks. He also cautioned that political parties often
pander to them in an effort to attract votes.
You cannot say that Hinduism is intolerant. The vast majority of Hindus
live with us in harmony and peace, and they even welcome Christianity in
India.
While Indias constitution guarantees religious freedom, sometimes
the state protects extremists as certain political parties try to exploit
religious tensions to gain more votes by giving patronage to these groups.
The new cardinal also called on the government to reverse its policy
that denies preferential status to people from lower castes that convert
to Christianity. According to Alencherry, the official reason for this
is that there is no caste difference in Christianity.
But while it is true that there is no inequality in the Christian
community, the archbishop noted that economic inequality subsists.
My reading is that they are afraid that if people who embrace the
Catholic faith and are from the so-called lower caste are given equal rights,
there may be a flow of people into Christianity, and that would be a challenge
for the majority community.
Even if no one says it explicitly, Alencherry suggested that behind
the scenes many see Christianity as a threat to the majority religion,
Hinduism.

Half worlds 2.3 billion Christians are Catholic: New
survey

World's Christian population, from the respected Pew Forum

The worlds largest Christian population is in the United States. One-third
of the worlds Christians live in the Americas, North and South. The Middle
East, home of Christianity, is now only four-per-cent Christian. Half the
worlds Christians are Roman Catholics.
Those are some of the findings of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public
Life, arguably the worlds best religion pollster. It came out today, just
before Christmas, with the most extensive data ever on the worlds Christian
population. I will follow up on it later, but in the meantime here are
key findings.

Highlights:
- There are 2.18 billion Christians of all ages in more than 200 countries
around the world, representing nearly a third of the estimated 6.9 billion
2010 global population.
- In 1910, two-thirds of the worlds Christians lived in Europe. Today,
only about a quarter of all Christians live in Europe (26%).
- In the last 100 years, the number of Christians around the world
has more than tripled from historical estimates of approximately 600 million
in 1910 to more than two billion today Still, because of rising world
populations, Christians make up about the same portion of the worlds population
in 2010 (32%) as they did a century ago (35%).
- Christians are diverse theologically as well as geographically. About
half are Catholic. Protestants, broadly defined, make up 37%. Orthodox
Christians comprise 12% of Christians worldwide.
- Taken as a whole Christians are by far the worlds largest religious
group. Muslims, the second-largest group, make up a little less than a
quarter of the worlds population.
- Almost half (48%) of all Christians live in the 10 countries with
the largest number of Christians. Three of the top 10 are in the Americas
(the United States, Brazil and Mexico). Two are in Europe (Russia and Germany);
two are in the Asia-Pacific region (the Philippines and China); and three
are in sub-Saharan Africa (Nigeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo and
Ethiopia), reflecting Christianitys global reach.
- Nigeria now has more than twice as many Protestants (broadly defined
to include Anglicans and independent churches) as Germany, the birthplace
of the Protestant Reformation.

The full report, which includes a companion quiz, interactive maps and
sortable data tables, is available on the Pew
Forums website.

The happiness of believing

Europeans who belong to a religion report higher levels of happiness
than those who do not.

Do religious belief and practice affect the happiness of Europeans?
In the first part of this two-part article, to answer our question we focused
on the European Values Study. In this second part we deal with results
from the European Social Survey.

For an empirical analysis of the effect of religion on happiness, we
use data from three waves (2002/2003, 2004 and 2006) of the European Social
Survey (ESS) covering 114,019 individuals in 24 different countries. These
provide information on personal characteristics such as gender, age, income,
subjective general health, marital status, main activity, number of children
and the educational level of each individual, among other things.
As indicators of religion, we have two groups of variables. A first
group, about religious belief, considers questions such as: Do you belong
to a particular religion? (yes or no), What religion or denomination
do you belong to? (Roman Catholic, Protestant, Eastern Orthodox, Other
Christian denomination, Jewish, Islam, Eastern religions, Other non-Christian
religions), and How religious are you? (on a scale from 0, not at all
religious to 9, very religious).
The second group proxies for religious practice and consists of the
queries: How often do you attend religious services, apart from special
occasions? and How often do you pray, apart from religious services?,
with responses ranging from every day, more than once a week, once
a week, at least once a month, only on special holy days, less often,
to never. As with most studies on economics and happiness, we make use
of the question, How happy are you?, to which the respondent answers
on a scale from 1, which stands for not happy at all, to 10, which stands
for completely happy.
On average, happiness among the 24 European countries is 7.26, but
with great differences ranging from 5.54 for Ukraine to 8.32 for Denmark.
We also find significant differences in the religion variables. The countries
with the lowest proportion of individuals belonging to a particular religion
are Estonia and the Czech Republic, while those with the highest proportion
are Greece, Poland, Portugal and Ireland. Similarly, there is evidence
of differences between religious belief and religious practice variables.
For example, the proportion of people belonging to a religion in Spain
is 74 per cent (12 points above the mean average), although individuals
attending services and praying report a mean
lower than the European average.

Religion and happiness are correlated

When we ran statistical tests looking for correlations between happiness
and religion variables, the main results were as follows:
1. There is a significant effect of belonging to a religion on happiness.
Those who belong to a religion report higher levels of happiness than those
who do not.
2. The religion or denomination has a significant effect on happiness.
Protestants, other Christian religions and Roman Catholics report higher
happiness levels whereas Orthodox and Eastern religions report the lowest.
3. There seems to be a positive relationship between how religious
a person is and happiness: the more religious, the happier. However, those
who consider themselves not at all religious (0) have comparable levels
of happiness to those who give themselves a 5 in the scale of religiosity.
4. Frequency of attendance at services is likewise positively correlated
with happiness: those who attend religious services every day say they
are happier than those who never attend.
5. Frequency of prayer is positively correlated with happiness, with
those who pray every day reporting higher levels of happiness than those
who never pray.
6. Frequency of attendance in services is a more relevant variable
than frequency of prayer in the self-reported happiness levels.

Explaining the religion-happiness link

From the perspective of the psychology of religion, Nielsen (1998) provides
three possible explanations for the positive link between religion and
happiness.

The first refers to the social support. People are happier when they
find themselves in a supportive environment and religion offers this. That
could explain why the beneficial influence of religion on happiness is
strongest among people who need support the most, such as the elderly,
the sick and those who are single. Moreover, religion allows people to
feel themselves closer to God, also viewed as a source of support. Economics
literature expresses this same idea, inasmuch as religion could serve as
insurance during negative shocks (Chen 2003) and a source of both direct
(education) and indirect social benefits (health, work) (Glaeser et al.
2000, Finke and Stark 1998).

Secondly, people with firm beliefs, those who have a sense of what is
important and an orientation in life, tend to be happier (Ellison 1991).
Religion supplies people with such beliefs. This aspect of religion may
have to do with the greater membership success of conservative churches
(Kelley 1972). Although stricter and more demanding in morals and practice,
they offer greater certitude in beliefs.

Thirdly, religion itself may contribute to happiness by triggering positive
experiences, such as a feeling of being in contact with God (transcendence)
or with others (Pollner 1989).

How do these explanations from the psychology of religion test with
the statistical findings set out above? They undoubtedly support (1) Those
who belong to a religion report higher levels of happiness than those who
do not, (3) The more religious a person, the happier, (4) The frequency
of attendance at services is positively correlated with happiness and
(5) The frequency of prayer is positively correlated with happiness.
But we do not find them helpful in explaining (2) The religion or denomination
to which the individual belongs has a significant effect on happiness
and (6) Frequency of attendance in services is a more relevant variable
than frequency of prayer in the self-reported happiness levels.

Regarding (2), which refers to the varying correlations between particular
religions or denominations and self-reported happiness, the psychology
of religion seems to imply that Protestant religions provide greater social
support, firmer beliefs and more positive religious experiences or any
combination of the three than Eastern Orthodox religions, for example.
However, we do not have evidence for this. The lumping together of various
Protestant religions, other Christian religions and Eastern Orthodox churches
does not allow us to calibrate the social support, firm beliefs and religious
experiences associated with each.

Neither do we have a straightforward explanation for (6), which suggests
that frequency of attendance at services is more significant than frequency
of prayer for happiness. Certainly, attendance at services could provide
more social support than prayer, which could be done individually. But
attendance at religious services does not necessarily imply firmer beliefs
nor more positive religious experiences. (Some religions may just emphasize
private prayer more than community worship.) We do not know, nor can we
tell with the available data. We would have to tease out the individual
effects of social support, firm beliefs and religious experience from their
cumulative effect on happiness, for attendance at services and for prayer.
But again that is not possible with the available information.

Insights from the sociology of religion

Furthermore, there are other dimensions to both religious belief and
practice than those considered by the ESS. Here is where inputs from the
sociology of religion come in handy. The sociology of religion offers insights
to better understand the underlying notions of religious belief and practice
and the tensions between them. It also sheds light on the relationship
between the individual and the group through mediating institutions such
as the Church, the State and the market.

What could be meant by religious belief in this context? Starting
out with the British experience (Davie 1994), and later on extending it
to the rest of Europe and America (Berger et al. 2008), Davie suggests
that religious belief mainly refers to feelings, experiences and the
numinous, as could be associated with the New Age movement, for example.
It does not refer to creedal statements with precise and specific contents.
It is a profession in an ordinary God (Abercrombie et al. 1970), not
a God who can change the course of heaven and earth (Davie 1994: 1).
Philosophically, this corresponds to the God of deism: one who, after creation,
soon left human beings to their own devices. Although nominally Christian,
belief here represents a non-institutional religiosity; it is belief that
has been privatized, becoming invisible and implicit. It also goes under
the names of popular, common, customary, folk, civic or civil
religion. Rather than the absence of belief, it is an individually customized
patchwork of beliefs. Therefore, apart from the categories of belief and
unbelief, the degrees of religiosity and institutional religions, it would
be interesting to look into the range of non-institutional religiosity
and test it against happiness.

And how are we to understand religious practice? Again, for Davie
(1994) and colleagues (Berger et al. 2008), this belonging covers a wide
range of behaviors, from religious orthodoxy to ritual participation and
an instrumental attachment to religion. They fall under what she calls
vicarious religion, meaning that although an individual does not want
to be personally involved with a church, he nonetheless wants the church
to be there for other people or society as a whole (Berger et al. 2008:
15) as seen, for instance, in the role of churches in expressing national
grief or mourning. Therefore, besides data for frequency of attendance
at services and prayer, there are other forms of religious practice such
as vicarious religion that can be analyzed in relation to happiness.

Lastly, there are two basic models that relate the individual to the
group in the religious sphere: the traditional, historic or established
church and the church as a voluntary association in the faith market (Berger
et al. 2008: 16-7). The first is dominant in Europe, whereas the second
exists mainly in the United States. The traditional church, much like the
State, exercises a monopoly over the faithful who do not belong to it by
choice, but by default or obligation. In many countries, this is the national
church understood as a ministry of the State. The church which arises
through voluntary adherence, on the other hand, follows the market model.
In lieu of an established church is a market where various churches compete.
In some cases, however, the same faith group may adopt the traditional
mode in one place and the voluntary mode in another, as with the Catholic
Church in Europe and in the US, for instance. In general, the decline in
religious belief and practice or secularization has affected traditional
churches more than churches of voluntary adherence.

We think that the status of religion whether traditional or voluntary
affects not only the levels of belief and practice, but also the level
of happiness. Countries with the traditional model of religion will have
lower levels of religious belief and practice than those with the voluntary
model due to the latters internal locus of control. It is also probable
that followers of voluntary religion will report higher levels of happiness
than those of traditional religion. But again, unfortunately, this cannot
be confirmed with the available data.

As a final remark, despite positive correlations obtained between religious
belief and practice, on the one hand, and happiness, on the other, results
would have to be nuanced by a better understanding of both religious belief
and practice. For some religions, belief cannot be separated that easily
from belonging or practice and vice-versa. It could also very well be the
case that religion is more than just a means for achieving happiness through
the satisfaction of psychological needs.

Alejo José G. Sison and Juncal Cuñado teach at the University
of Navarra, in Pamplona, Spain.

video here http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2011/December/Explorers-Say-Theyve-Found-Pieces-of-Noahs-Ark/It's perhaps one of the most told stories in the Bible
Cartoon sketches of Noah's ark fill children's books, and Hollywood
even produced a modern-day adaptation in "Evan Almighty."
Now, a group of scientists say they've found parts of the biblical
ark.
Daniel McGivern and his team claimed to have discovered two large sections
of Noah's ark resting just below surface atop Mount Ararat in Turkey --
where the Bible says the ark came to rest.
"The mountain is treeless. The mountain is volcanic with gases. There
is no conceivable way that you could have an object that big on a mountain,"
McGivern said.
The team used military satellite imagery and ground penetrating radar
technology to locate the ruins. They believe the large object is wooden.
"The evidence is overwhelming," McGivern added. "This is the large
piece from Noah's ark."
His evidence is based solely on imaging technology.
The large piece of wood will likely remain buried under ice.
"There's a huge problem with getting down to it, because of the fact
that you can't melt the ice," McGivern explained. "You are up there at
16,600 feet. How are you going to get down to it?"
For centuries, explores have searched Mount Ararat for the ark.
Just last year, a Chinese team claimed to have found the historical
boat -- releasing a video showing men inside what appeared to be ancient
wooden structures.
The video and find was widely believed to be a hoax.
McGivern's claim may never have the hard evidence to back it up, but
the discovery could provide a great opportunity to share the gospel.

UK is a Christian nation, Cameron emphasizesDecember 20, 2011In a speech commemorating the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible,
Prime Minister David Cameron emphasized that the United Kingdom is a Christian
nation.
We are a Christian country, he said. And we should not be afraid
to say so what I am saying is that the Bible has helped to give Britain
a set of values and morals which make Britain what it is today. Values
and morals we should actively stand up and defend. The alternative of moral
neutrality should not be an option. You cant fight something with nothing.
Because if we dont stand for something, we cant stand against anything.

Those who oppose this usually make the case for secular neutrality,
he added. They argue that by saying we are a Christian country and standing
up for Christian values we are somehow doing down other faiths. And that
the only way not to offend people is not to pass judgment on their behavior.
I think these arguments are profoundly wrong. And being clear on this is
absolutely fundamental to who we are as a people, what we stand for, and
the kind of society we want to build.

In an apparent swipe at Catholic teaching on womens ordination,
Cameron, an Anglican, said that the Bible has been at the forefront of
the emergence of democracy, the abolition of slavery, and the emancipation
of women--even if not every church has always got the point.

Family values remain strong in a changing world

Values remain strong in a changing world

Gobal data shows majority support for the traditional
family, despite some erosion.

In the last section of the Sustainable
Demographic Development report Laurie deRose surveys global statistical
evidence on international family strcuture, childrens trends, family culture,
and family economic wellbeing. Here MercatorNet reproduces his findings
on family culture, which are generally positive. The third and last in
this series.

KEY FINDINGS: Throughout the world, support for the institution of the
family is strong. In every country examined except Sweden, men and women
agree that a child needs a mother and father to grow up happily. In all
29 countries, a majority of adults believes marriage is still relevant
and that an additional emphasis on family life would be a good thing. Nevertheless,
support for marital permanence is weaker, with adults in many countries
taking a relatively permissive stance toward divorce.

Marriage is a near-universal institution around the globe. The meaning
of marriage, however, varies from country to country and has changed across
time. In many places around the world, marriage has become about love and
companionshipa stark contrast to pre-Industrial Revolution marriages that
were to a large degree about economic survival. Still, marriage continues
to be viewed by many as the gold standard in relationships, as the optimal
arrangement for childrearing, and as a relationship that should not easily
be terminated. Precisely how many hold these views around the world is
not clear.

To shed light on adults attitudes toward marriage and family life around
the world, we present data from the World Values Survey, collected between
1999 and 2007, on four cultural indicators in 29 countries: (1) agreement
that a child needs a home with a mother and father to grow up happily,
(2) disagreement that marriage is an outdated institution, (3) agreement
that more societal emphasis on family life would be a good thing, and (4)
opinions about how justified divorce is. Because the World Values Survey
has been collected since the early 1980s in many of the 29 countries of
interest, we are also able to paint a portrait of changes in family culture
over the last 25 years or so.
Do children need a mother and a father?

The vast majority of adults around the world believe a child needs to
be raised in a home with both a mother and a father in order to grow up
happily (see Table 3 and Figure 4). This sentiment is strong in South America;
more than 75 percent of adults in Argentina (88 percent), Chile (76 percent),
Colombia (86 percent), and Peru (93 percent) believe a two-parent home
is necessary for a happy childhood. North Americans are less likely to
agree to this idea, but still 63 percent of U.S. adults and 65 percent
of Canadians affirm the mother-father household as optimal for raising
happy children.

Agreement with the mother-father family ideal is even stronger in Europe
than in the Americas, with the sole exception of Sweden. There, only 47
percent of adults agree that a child needs to be raised by a mother and
father to be happy. Notably, Sweden is the only country in the world where
a minority agrees with this sentiment. Agreement with a mother-father ideal
exceeds 90 percent in Italy (93 percent) and Poland (95 percent) and 80
percent in France (86 percent) and Germany (88 percent). More than three-quarters
(78 percent) of Spaniards view this family arrangement as best for children,
as do two-thirds (67 percent) of British adults.

Support for the mother-father family type is nearly unanimous in the
Middle Eastern and African countries: Egypt (99 percent), Saudi Arabia
(95 percent), Nigeria (97 percent), and South Africa (91 percent). Asian
support for children being raised by a mother and father is also strong.
Most of the Asian countries profiled exceed 90 percent agreement: China
(97 percent), India (90 percent), Malaysia (92 percent), Philippines (97
percent), and South Korea (92 percent); and the remainder exceed 80 percent:
Indonesia (81 percent), Japan (89 percent), and Taiwan (87 percent). Australians
(70 percent) and New Zealanders (68 percent) express less agreement, resembling
Americans, Canadians, and British attitudes on this issue.

There is not clear evidence that this attitude is changing drastically
over time in one particular direction.

In most cases, support for a mother-father family type has remained
relatively stable, or has fluctuated in a nonlinear fashion. Two notable
exceptions to this are Chile, which saw agreement with this statement drop
from 93 percent in 1990 to 76 percent in 2006; and Sweden, which fell from
71 percent agreement in 1982 to 47 percent in 2006. South African support
for the mother- father family ideal may have even grown from 83 percent
in 1982 to 91 percent in 2006.

Marriage an outdated institution?

Like agreement that children need a mother and father to be happy, the
overwhelming majority of adults around the world disagree that marriage
is outdated (see Table 3). In none of the 29 countries did fewer than 64
percent of adults (France) feel this way. Between 70 and 80 percent of
adults in most American countries disagree marriage is outdated: Argentina
(70 percent), Canada (78 percent), Chile (72 percent), Colombia (75 percent),
Mexico (71 percent), and Peru (80 percent). The United States stands out
a bit from its neighbors, with 87 percent disagreeing marriage is outdated.

European support for marriage as a relevant institution is similarly
strong in most countries. French (64 percent) and Spanish (67 percent)
adults are the least likely to disagree marriage is outdated, but support
for marriage as an institution exceeds 70 percent in Germany (78 percent),
Sweden (78 percent), and the United Kingdom (74 percent). More than 80
percent believe marriage remains relevant in Italy (81 percent), and support
for marriage surpasses 90 percent in Poland (91 percent).

Belief in marriages relevance is even strongerthese data suggestin
most other parts of the world. The two Middle Eastern countries examined
here exhibit strong support for the institution of marriage: Egypt (96
percent) and Saudi Arabia (83 percent). In Africa, 85 percent of Nigerians
believe marriage is not outdated; a relatively low (but still high in absolute
terms) percentage of South Africans (77 percent) feel the same way. Marriage
receives high levels of support throughout Asia and Oceania as well: China
(88 percent), India (80 percent), Indonesia (96 percent), Japan (94 percent),
Malaysia (86 percent), Philippines (83 percent), South Korea (87 percent),
Taiwan (89 percent), Australia (82 percent), and New Zealand (85 percent).

There is some evidence of a decline in this attitude around the world,
though it is clearly not universal and not precipitous. Double-digit declines
in support for marriage occurred in Chile from 1990 to 2006 (85 percent
to 72 percent), in Mexico from 1981 to 2005 (81 percent to 71 percent),
in Great Britain from 1981 to 1999 (86 percent to 74 percent), and in India
from 1990 to 2006 (95 percent to 80 percent).
For more information visit sustaineddemographicdividend.org/e-ppendix

Double-digit increases, however, took place in Japan (76 percent to
94 percent). Still, decline in support for marriage seems to be the more
common trend, as modest declines in support for the institution can be
seen in many of the other countries examined here.

More emphasis on Family Life a Good Thing?

Around the world, adults overwhelmingly believe that family life deserves
more emphasis (Table 3). When asked whether more emphasis on family life
would be a good thing, a bad thing, or something they wouldnt mind, vast
majorities report that this would be a good thing. In most countries in
the Americas, 90 percent or more believe additional emphasis on family
life would be a good thing: Argentina (94 percent), Canada (95 percent),
Chile (90 percent), Colombia (99 percent), Mexico (97 percent), and Peru
(96 percent). Desire for more emphasis on family is 88 percent in the United
States.

European desire for a greater focus on family life is also strong. Swedes
are the least likely Europeans to report such a development would be a
good thing, but even 81 percent of Swedish adults believe it would be good.
Additional family emphasis would clearly be welcomed by most in France
(93 percent), Germany (87 percent), Great Britain (93 percent), Italy (93
percent), Poland (94 percent), and Spain (92 percent).

Throughout the Middle East [Egypt (96 percent) and Saudi Arabia (90
percent)] and Africa [Nigeria (94 percent) and South Africa (86 percent)],
adults view positively an added emphasis on family life. Asians would also
welcome this added focus, although India (75 percent) and Malaysia (78
percent) less so than other countries [China (92 percent), Indonesia (87
percent), Japan (87 percent), Philippines (92 percent), South Korea (89
percent), and Taiwan (97 percent)]. In Oceania, too, a heightened focus
on family life would be embraced by most [Australia (90 percent) and New
Zealand (92 percent)].

If anything, the desire for added emphasis on family life appears to
be growing around the world. Relatively large increases in this attitude
can be seen in Mexico (9 percentage points from 1981 to 2005), Great Britain
(9 percentage points from 1981 to 2006), Spain (8 percentage points from
1981 to 2007), China (18 percentage points from 1990 to 2007), and Japan
(7 percentage points from 1981 to 2005).

For more information visit sustaineddemographicdividend.org/e-ppendix

Some countries have witnessed declines in this sentiment, however, including
Chile (7 percentage points from 1990 to 2006) and the United States (7
percentage points from 1982 to 2006).

Divorce attitudes

While support for mother-father families, marriage, and family life
in general is strong around the world, attitudes toward divorce vary widely
by region (see Table 3). On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being permissive
and 10 being restrictive, countries range from the very permissive (Sweden,
2.6) to the very restrictive (Nigeria, 8.5). In the Americas, the countries
with the most conservative attitudes about divorce are Peru (7.2) and Colombia
(6.3). All other American countries fall below the scale midpoint of 5.5:
Argentina (4.5), Canada (5.1), Chile (5.0), Mexico (5.7), and the United
States (5.2).

The European countries range from moderate to permissive in their divorce
attitudes, with Poland (6.3) and Italy (6.0) being the most restrictive.
Swedish adults (2.6) believe divorce is almost always justifiable. Spain
(3.9), France (4.1), Germany (4.3), and Great Britain (4.6) are also quite
permissive.

The Middle East, Africa, and Asia have the most conservative attitudes
toward divorce, though even here the numbers are not always extreme. Egypt
(6.0) and Saudi Arabia (6.4) are fairly moderate in their stance on divorce.
Nigeria (8.5) is the most conservative nation on this attitude, and South
Africa (7.1) is also relatively restrictive. Asian countries vary somewhat
widely in their attitudes, ranging from Japan at 4.6 to China at 8.3. In
between these extremes are moderate countries like South Korea (6.4) and
Taiwan (6.3), and somewhat more conservative countries like India (7.1),
Indonesia (8.0), Malaysia (7.4), and the Philippines (7.8).

Oceania, like Europe, is fairly permissive when it comes to divorce.
Both Australia and New Zealand have average scores of 4.3, indicating divorce
is justifiable more often than not.

There is a clear pattern of liberalization of divorce attitudes in the
Americas, Europe, and Oceania. With the exceptions of Colombia, Peru, and
Italy, countries in these regions have become more permissive in their
divorce attitudes.

For more information visit sustaineddemographicdividend.org/e-ppendix

We do not have longitudinal data for the Middle East, but in Nigeria
divorce attitudes appear to have become more conservative, and attitudes
have been generally consistent across time in South Africa. China has seen
attitudes become more restrictiveespecially since 1995but other Asian
countries, specifically India, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, have become
more permissive in their attitudes about divorce. So too have Australia
and New Zealand.

Conclusions

Taken together, these findings suggest that in most countries around
the world, adults have relatively traditional family attitudes. They believe
children need to be raised by a mother and father to grow up happily. They
endorse marriage as an institution, and they wish that there were more
emphasis placed on family life. Nevertheless, they hold relatively permissive
attitudes toward divorce. This suggests that in many places around the
world, adults are wrestling with the meaning of marriage and what an ideal
family should look like. On the one hand, they value the institution and
its childrearing benefits; on the other hand, they are more open to an
individualistic understanding of marriage that allows for the termination
of the relationship under many circumstances.

While these are the dominant patterns, there are clearly variations
in family culture around the world. North America, Oceania, and Scandinavia
generally take a more laissez-faire view of family matters, whereas Africa,
Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America embrace a more familistic view
of things. These differences can be attributed to variations in religiosity,
economic development, political culture, and the relative importance of
community vis-à-vis the individual in these different regions of
the world.

Motherhood at a PriceIVF Is Proving Perilous

By Father John Flynn, LC

ROME, OCT. 28, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Even as in vitro fertilization treatments
are being sought by growing numbers of women, more and more evidence is
surfacing to confirm the downsides of its use.
Canadian doctor John Barrett described what he termed an "epidemic
of multiple births, largely as a result of IVF," the National Post newspaper
reported Sept. 22.
"What the IVF industry is doing is creating a population of sick babies
... that is impacting all society," he said. The number of multiple births
in Canada increased by 45% to almost 12,000 a year in the period 1991 to
2008, according to the article, citing data from Statistics Canada.In a
further article on IVF on Sept. 26 the National Post reported that it is
linked to rare genetic disorders. Addressing a conference on fertility
Dr. Rosanna Weksberg said that babies born as a result of IVF are up to
10 times more likely to have genetic problems. While she affirmed her support
for the use of IVF, Weskberg also said she is seeing many IVF children
with rare disorders. She added there is evidence that IVF babies are more
likely to be born at a low weight.The cause of this increased risk of genetic
problems is unknown, but according to Weksberg it could well be a combination
of the infertility problems of the parents, together with the fertility
treatments themselves. In cases where outside donors are involved, other
problems for IVF children can come about due to their lack of knowledge
of any medical issues of their biological parent.

Sickness

In Australia a television station recently ran a story about a woman
conceived using donor sperm, who now has inheritable bowel cancer, which
was not from her mother.
According to a report published Sept.5 by the British BioNews service,
the woman cannot obtain any information about her father, nor can she contact
the other eight half-siblings, due to the fact that at the time of their
conception the identity of donors was kept secret.
A number of Australian states have now changed the law to require donors
to consent to the release of their information, but the change is not retrospective.
A similar problem was reported by American ABC News on July 21. Rebecca
Blackwell and her 15-year-old son Tyler were trying to track down his sperm
donor father and while he did not respond to their requests for information
his sister did tell them that her brother had an inheritable aortic heart
defect. They also found out that Tyler had inherited this condition, which
could kill him without warning. He later had an operation, but faces the
need for continual monitoring for the rest of his life.

Tyler's father donated sperm at three clinics, fathering at least 24
children. He did not tell any of them about his health problems, which
also include Marfan's syndrome, a tissue disorder.
Other negative consequences come about when a donor's sperm has been
used very frequently. The concern is that some of the children, ignorant
of who their father is, could enter into an incestuous relationship. One
British sperm donor has fathered children in 17 families, the Sunday Times
reported, Sept. 18. Official guidelines put a limit at 10, but the Human
Fertility and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has admitted there have been
other breaches as well. Moreover, they also don't know how many times the
rules have been broken. "There is a real danger in a small country like
the UK for donor-conceived children to meet up unknowingly with half-siblings,"
said Josephine Quintavalle, of the Comment on Reproductive Ethics.
While the United States is a lot bigger than England the problem of multiple
IVF offspring from the same donor is significant.
One notable case highlighted in a report published Sept. 5 by the New
York Times told of a man who has up to now fathered 150 children. While
this is an extreme example the article said that there are many other cases
of donors fathering 50 or more children.
"We have more rules that go into place when you buy a used car than
when you buy sperm," said Debora L. Spar, author of "The Baby Business:
How Money, Science and Politics Drive the Commerce of Conception."
According to the New York Times there is no certain data on how many
children are born involving the use of sperm donors. There are various
estimates, however, ranging from 30,000 to 60,000.

Complications

It's not just the babies who are at risk. An analysis of existing studies
found that women who undergo IVF have a higher risk, as much as 40% in
some cases, of a serious complication during pregnancy, London's Telegraph
newspaper reported Oct. 20.
It is thought that the process involving the initial development of
the embryo outside the mother's body leads to a poor development of the
placenta later on. Another cause is that the women tend to be older and
to have health problems.
Some IVF treatments involve the donation of ova from another woman.
Concern was recently expressed that the large number of ova being taken
from some donors puts them at risk, the Sunday Times reported Oct. 23.
In addition to problems such as mood swings, headaches and tiredness,
the hormones injected into donors can lead to a condition called ovarian
hyperstimulation syndrome, causing blood clots and kidney damage and even
death in some cases.
Data from the HFEA show that in one case as many as 85 ova were taken
from one donor. Others had large numbers removed, from 50 up to 70. These
worries come at a time when fertility authority has increased -- from £250
to £750 ($400 to $1,200) -- the amount an ova donor can be paid,
the Independent newspaper reported, Oct. 20. The move came as clinics suffer
from a shortage of donors. In part this came about due to donor anonymity
being removed in 2005. "This is a disgraceful decision that puts
young women's health at risk," declared David King, director of Human Genetics
Alert. A £750 payment is a strong incentive to university students
who are struggling to pay their fees, he said. Apart from health
risks the clinics sometimes make mistakes, which are on the rise in Britain,
according to an Aug. 13 article published by the Daily Mail.

Figures from the HFEA reveal that 564 serious errors or near misses
occurred at clinics in Britain in 2010. This is three times the 2007 number.
The mistakes include injecting the wrong sperm into an ova, embryos accidentally
being destroyed, and the wrong embryos being implanted into women. There
has only been a slight increase in the number of IVF treatments in recent
years, so the sharp increase in mistakes is not due to higher numbers of
cases. Earlier, in a July 22 article, the Daily Mail reported that hundreds
of thousands of embryos are thrown away by clinics. More than 30 human
embryos are created for every successful birth by IVF, according to figures
published by the Department of Health. The information revealed that since
1991 more than 3 million embryos have been created by IVF, with fewer than
100,000 births resulting. According to the Daily Mail around 1.5 million
were discarded in the course of treatment and more than 100,000 were given
for research in destructive experiments. The opposition of the Catholic
Church to the use of IVF is well known, but you don't have to be a Catholic
to be very concerned over the immense human cost involved in these procedures.

Italian Priest Shot Dead in Southern PhilippinesAn Italian Catholic priest who was about to travel to a clergy meeting
was shot dead Monday in his remote southern Philippine parish, police said.

The Rev. Fausto Tentorio was approaching his car when a gunman shot
him several times within the church compound in North Cotabato province's
mountainous Arakan township, said Chief Inspector Benjamin Rioflorido.
Tentorio, a native of Santa Maria Hoe town in Italy's Lecco province, was
dead on arrival at hospital. He was 59. Rioflorido said that according
to a witness, the gunman ran from the scene after the shooting and fled
toward an adjacent town on a motorcycle driven by an accomplice.

Investigators have not yet identified suspects or possible motives,
Rioflorido said in a telephone interview. He said Tentorio had been a longtime
parish priest in Arakan, spoke the dialect fluently and had good ties with
the people there.
The priest had been about to travel to the provincial capital, Kidapawan
city, to attend a clergy meeting of his diocese. Kidapawan Bishop Romulo
dela Cruz strongly denounced the killing and called on the police and military
to solve the killing quickly.
Tentorio belonged to the Rome-based Pontifical Institute for Foreign
Missions. PIME said he had worked with indigenous people in the south for
more than 30 years and was the third PIME missionary to be killed on southern
Mindanao Island, the homeland of minority Muslims in the predominantly
Roman Catholic country. The resource-rich but impoverished region has seen
Muslim rebellions for decades. "We are very sad because we lost already
two other priests here in Mindanao," Rev. Julio Mariani, director of PIME's
Euntes Mission Center in Zamboanga City, told The Associated Press.
Mariani said Tentorio received unspecified death threats around seven
years ago, but had not mentioned new threats when they last met in July.
He said Tentorio's killing could have been related to his work defending
the rights of indigenous people and helping them hold on to their ancestral
land.

"It was a delicate mission because when you deal with the marginalized
and the poor, you are bound to step on the toes of some people and this
could have been the source of the problem of why he was killed," Mariani
added-
Rioflorido said they did not know of any death threats received by
Tentorio. He said police would interview Tentorio's colleagues and other
possible witnesses including teachers at a preschool within the church
compound who were attending a flag-raising ceremony when the attack took
place. Italian Ambassador Luca Fornari condemned the killing and expressed
shock, sadness and dismay. "Killing someone who is doing good things is
something that we cannot understand," he added.

He said the embassy has asked police to increase security for missionaries.
Italy has warned its nationals, including priests, not to go to Mindanao,
but missionaries have disregarded the advisory in order to help people,
Fornari said. Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario called on
police "to immediately bring the perpetrators of this dastardly act to
justice" and offered condolences to Tentorio's family and congregation.

The Aramaic language is being resurrected in IsraelTwo television channels have been involved in initiatives to bring
to life, once again, the language that Jesus and his contemporaries spoke.
Today, it is spoken by 400 thousand people throughout the worldmarco tosatti
rome

KeTwo Israeli television channels are trying to see to it that Aramaic,
the language spoken by Jesus and his contemporaries in that region of the
Roman Empire, will once again become a living language and not just be
an almost extinct curiosity for scholars of Semitic languages to study.
Suroyo TV and Suryoyo TV offer an endless supply of material for online
discussion by fans so they can decide which is best. Among nouns that have
the same meaning, there are variations of the term Syriac in Aramaic.
The aficionados live in the Haifa zone, in Upper Galilee. There are probably
others, but living in Syria, in the mountains south of Damascus, and in
the small city of Maalula. It seems, however, that it is quite difficult
for the latter to connect to the two Israeli channels.

These two channels are nevertheless still valuable: they prove that
Aramaic is still living and breathing as a language, according to the inhabitants
of Jish, one of the villages in the area. Aramaic is a Semitic language
that is very close to Hebrew, and was once spread over the Fertile Crescent,
the wide strip of Middle Eastern land that had its center between the Tigris
and Euphrates rivers, but whose cultural and linguistic borders stretch
all the way to the Mediterranean. Over the centuries, the use of Aramaic
gradually dried up and was replaced by the Arab language of conquerors
who came up from the south; and today it is the language of choice for
Christians in the Middle East, particularly when in terms of liturgical
use. It is even studied by experts on the Talmud.

Aramaic was actuallyand a bit hastilygiven up for dead until scholars
became aware that a number of Aramaic dialects were spoken by communities
in Syria, Iraq, Turkey, and Iran. And those are not the only examples;
to a lesser extent, they are also spoken in Lebanon, Georgia, Azerbaijan,
and Israel. In the western world, the Aramaic diaspora is very much alive
and evident in the United States and Sweden; and as often occurs, these
exiles actually seem more active and interested in revitalizing the language.
It is believed that close to 400 thousand people throughout the world understand
and speak different nuances of the Aramaic language.

In Israel, the battle to turn Aramaic back into a living language
has been carried forward by two brothers, Amir and Shady Khallul. They
use Eliezer Ben Yehuda, the father of modern Hebrew, as their model. If
Jewish people are in a position to revive Hebrew and turn it into a modern
language, why shouldnt we do the same thing with Aramaic? The question
has been asked, and an affirmative answer has been given. Last year, the
Israeli Education Minister gave Jish permission to teach Aramaic in the
first two years of elementary school; it was necessary to build a program
from the ground up. Dictionaries of the language were discovered in France,
and a lot of educational materials, in Sweden. Most of the books have been
printed in Lebanon. Modern Aramaic is written using an old alphabet (Biblical
script uses Hebraic letters), which is something like a mixture of Hebrew
and Arabic; it has 22 characters and is written right to left. There are
two main dialects, an eastern and a western one (as is the case with Armenian),
and a single written model, Estrangela, which is used in prayers and
religious texts.

Israeli speakers of Aramaic who use the western dialect have an
additional challenge. They have to teach their children how to speak the
language and then encourage them to use it in everyday life with friends,
family, and at school; they also have to teach them how to write using
both the western and Estrangela alphabets. Jish was once the site of Gush
Halav, a village from the time of Jerusalems Second Temple; it was noted
for the fertility of its soil and the high quality of its olives. More
than half of its current 3,000 inhabitants are Maronite Christians, whom
Israeli soldiers displaced from neighboring Biram in 1948; they were not
allowed to return to their village of origin, which became the Baram Kibbutz.
35 percent are Muslims, while10 percent are Greek Orthodox christians.
It is these Maronites who are trying to keep the culture, language, and
historical legacy alive.

Jish has a very lively community life and contacts with other
Maronites who live in Israel, Nazareth, Acri, and Haifa. Among these, are
almost 2,000 soldiers from the former Southern Lebanese army who found
refuge in Israel after the Israeli army withdrew from Lebanon in 2000.
At the time, the initiative to teach Aramaic was enthusiastically welcomed;
classes for both children and adults were launched. Even the schools headmaster,
a Muslim, actively and staunchly supports the project, so much so that
his son is even enrolled in one of the courses, in order to establish solidarity
with neighboring regions. Maronites in Jish are a different kettle of fish,
however: for them, Aramaic is essential to their existence as a people,
in the same way that the Hebrew and Arab languages are for those groups.
We dont identify ourselves as Aramaic, unlike some other nationalities,
Khallul declared. For us, the State of Israel is very precious. I am very
proud of the military service I carried out as Captain of the paratrooper
brigade, and its not just a few Aramaics who enlist in the Israeli army.
We feel a deep sense of belonging in this place and all of the traditions
it has welcomed. And, in effect, the contact between Maronites goes back
a long time. Various Maronite currents were reported at the end of the
1930s with the advent of the Zionist movement. During the 1939 Arab revolt,
the Maronites supplied Jews who had been laid siege to in Safed, food off
the back of donkey; they also helped some Holocuast survivors secretly
enter Biram through the border, when the English closed off Palestine.
David Ben Gurion, also worked to create a Maronite Christian state in southern
Lebanon, which was financed by his Jewish agency.

Smoke and mirrorsWhy do governments want us to believe that smoking
cannot be safe but promiscuous sex can?

Earlier this year the Australian federal government unveiled draft legislation
to introduce plain packaging laws for cigarettes. Health minister Nicola
Roxon was unequivocal in her determination to put the final nail in the
coffin of the tobacco industry. Showing off the new compulsory olive green packaging with vivid images
of clogged arteries, cancerous gums and gangrene-infected feet, the minister
declared: We are going to ensure that in Australia there are no remaining
avenues for tobacco companies to market and promote their products, particularly
to young people. Gone are the days when people can pretend that cigarettes
are glamorous.
I have never smoked, have never had any desire to smoke and nothing
frustrates me more than walking down the street and breathing in the secondhand
smoke of the person puffing away in front of me, but this latest legislative
push does cause me to wonder about the haphazard approach that federal
policy takes to the health of its citizens.
Its more than haphazard, actually; its hypocritical. Witness the
deceptive and fallacious safe sex campaign that is sold to young people
via various well designed and sexy governmental websites and videos. The
current, official, safe sex website tagline is, STIs are spreading fast,
always use a condom. This is accompanied by an attractive, naked young
couple embracing.
The message is all about condoms stopping everything from HIV to chlamydia
to gonorrhoea. The site contains interactive games and activities to get
across the condom message. It even ran a national competition to design
a condom tin to make carrying condoms as normal as carrying your mobile
phone. The problem is that the condom is not dealing with the issue, it
is just skirting around it. And the issue, which no government in the 21st
century would be game enough to speak about, is sexual promiscuity.
In 2005 the government banned terms such as light, mild and extra
mild on tobacco packaging as it gave the false impression that some cigarettes
were less harmful than others.
Yet here we are, in 2011, still telling young people that it is fine
to toy with diseases such a HIV and Syphilis so long as they use a thin
rubber sheath. There was a major TV ad campaign run last year in which
the entertaining and simplistic message was, Anyone can get herpes (anyone
who is having promiscuous sex, that is). Before that there was the highly
visible campaign promoting the cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil which was
given out free by the Australian Government to any females aged 12 to 26
The aspect that was not highly discussed in the popular media was that
cervical cancer comes about as a result of the human papillomavirus which
is a sexually transmitted disease. So, instead of speaking to 12-year-olds
about the value of who they are and what sex is, we inject them with a
vaccine.
In these campaigns, we see something very different to what goes on
in the war against tobacco.
The government is closing down all avenues left for the promotion and
sale of tobacco products, yet in the fight against deadly sexually transmitted
infections the best they can say is, wear a condom and get an injection.
What they are not saying is that a sexually promiscuous lifestyle is fraught
with the risk of disease and heartache.
What is needed in the campaign is an injection of truth. The safe sex
message is supposed to be all about information. Okay, how about this information:
women who use the pill for four years or longer prior to their first full
term pregnancy have a 52 per cent higher risk of cancer than those not
on the pill. That sort of risk is seemingly acceptable, yet last year Toyota
recalled 26,000 cars because 0.3 per cent of them experienced a slow brake
fluid leak.
What about the fact that girls who are sexually active are more than
three times likely to be depressed as girls who are abstinent prior to
marriage? Shouldnt we make it clear that teenage boys who are sexually
active are more than twice as likely to struggle with depression and are
more than eight times likely to attempt suicide?
Havent young people the right to know that those who are sexually
active prior to marriage have a significantly increased risk of divorce?
For a man who marries as a virgin, his chance of divorce is 63 per cent
lower than that of a non-virgin. For girls, it is 76 per cent lower when
they marry as virgins.
What young person informed of all these risks would not think twice
before experimenting with sex? What responsible authority would not want
to persuade adolescents, with the same fervour as they are putting into
anti-smoking campaigns, not to start along that path?
Sadly, general Western society has fallen into the pit of relativism
so we are impotent to stand up and actually say that promiscuous sex is
not glamorous, that it is better to wait until marriage to be sexually
active because there is a far higher chance of happiness on every level
and a genuinely decreased risk of a diseased body and diseased emotions.
After all, there is no condom for the heart.

Bernard Toutounji is an Australian writer and speaker with a background
in theology. He writes a regular column called Foolish Wisdom (www.foolishwisdom.com)
which focuses on issues of anthropology, morality and truth.

Change happens: new evidence on sexual orientationGroundbreaking research published this week shows successful change
in religiously motivated men and women.A chorus of voices in the professional world today proclaims that it
is impossible to change sexual orientation, particularly homosexual orientation,
and that the attempt to change sexual orientation is commonly and inherently
harmful. For example, for many years the Public Affairs website of the
American Psychological Association stated: Can therapy change sexual orientation?
No. . . . [H]omosexuality . . . does not require treatment and is not changeable.[1]
Regarding harm, the American Psychiatric Associations statement
that the potential risks of reparative therapy are great, including
depression, anxiety and self-destructive behavior[2] is often cited.
In tension with this supposed professional consensus are the final
results of a longitudinal study we have conducted over a period of seven
years, now published in The
Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy, a respected, peer-reviewed scientific
journal. This study involved a sample of men and women seeking religiously-mediated
sexual orientation change through involvement in a variety of Christian
ministries affiliated with Exodus
International.

A scientifically rigorous studyThis study meets high standards of empirical rigor. In other studies,
in the words of the American Psychological Association, treatment outcome
is not followed and reported over time as would be the standard to test
the validity of any mental health intervention.[3] Prior research has
been appropriately criticized for

Failing to follow subjects over time (i.e., not longitudinal)

Relying on memory rather than following change as it occurs (i.e., not
prospective)

Relying on therapist ratings rather than hearing directly from those seeking
change

Using idiosyncratic and unvalidated measures of sexual orientation

Our study was designed to address these empirical standards. It is a longitudinal
and prospective quasi-experimental study of a respectably large sample
of persons seeking to change their sexual orientation via religiously-mediated
means through Exodus ministries groups.
Among those endorsing an earlier
book [4] describing the study and its results at the 3-year mark was
former president of the American Psychological Association Nicholas A.
Cummings, Ph.D., Sc.D., who stated: Research in the controversial area
of homosexuality is fraught with ideology and plagued by a dearth of science.
This study has broken new ground in its adherence to objectivity and a
scientific precision that can be replicated and expanded, and it opens
new horizons for investigation . I have waited over thirty years for this
refreshing, penetrating study of an imperative, though controversial human
condition. This book is must reading for psychotherapists and counselors,
as well as academic psychologists studying human behavior and sexuality.
This study assessed the sexual orientations and psychological distress
levels of 98 individuals seeking sexual orientation change beginning early
in the change process, and then followed them longitudinally with five
additional independent assessments over a total span of 6 to 7 years. The
researchers used standardized, respected measures of sexual orientation
and of emotional distress to test the studys hypotheses. This new report
extends out to between 6-7 years the findings previously reported at the
3-year mark for the subjects in the study.
An earlier version of these results was presented at the annual convention
of the American Psychological Association on August 9, 2009; that two former
presidents of the APA, Dr. Nicholas Cummings and Dr. Frank Farley, discussed
the findings in that presentation underscores the significance of the study.

The findings in briefOf the original 98 subjects (72 men, 26 women), 61 subjects completed
the key measures of sexual orientation and psychological distress at the
conclusion of the study, and were successfully categorized for general
outcome. Of these 61 subjects, 53 per cent were categorized as successful
outcomes by the standards of Exodus Ministries.
Specifically, 23 per cent of the subjects reported success in the form
of successful conversion to heterosexual orientation and functioning,
while an additional 30 per cent reported stable behavioral chastity with
substantive dis-identification with homosexual orientation. On the other
hand, 20 per cent of the subjects reported giving up on the change process
and fully embracing gay identity.
On the measures of sexual orientation, statistically significant changes
on average were reported across the entire sample for decreases in homosexual
orientation; some statistically significant change, but of smaller magnitude,
was reported in increase of heterosexual attraction. These changes were
less substantial and generally statistically non-significant for the average
changes of those subjects assessed earliest in the change process, though
some of these subjects still figured as Success: Conversion cases.
The measure of psychological distress did not, on average, reflect
increases in psychological distress associated with the attempt to change
orientation; indeed, several small significant improvements in reported
average psychological distress were associated with the interventions.
In short, the results do not prove that categorical change in sexual
orientation is possible for everyone or anyone, but rather that meaningful
shifts along a continuum that constitute real changes appear possible for
some. The results do not prove that no one is harmed by the attempt to
change, but rather that the attempt to change does not appear to be harmful
on average or inherently harmful.

Caution advisedThe authors urge caution in projecting success rates from these findings;
the figures of 23 per cent successful conversion to heterosexual orientation
and 30 per cent to successful chastity are likely overly optimistic projections
of anticipated success for persons newly entering Exodus-related groups
seeking change.
Further, it was clear that conversion to heterosexual adaptation
was a complex phenomenon; the authors explore a variety of possible explanations
of the findings including religious healing and sexual identity change.
Nevertheless, these findings challenge the commonly expressed views of
the mental health establishment that change of sexual orientation is impossible
or very uncommon, and that the attempt to change is highly likely to produce
harm for those who make such an effort.
In our 2007 book, Ex-Gays?
(IVP), we discussed the implications of the findings of this study, and
those implications are still worthy of consideration. Most importantly,
the study suggests that since change seems possible for some, then all
should respect the integrity and autonomy of persons seeking to change
their sexual orientation for moral, religious, or other reasons, just as
we respect those who for similar reasons desire to affirm and embrace their
sexual orientation.
This requires that space be created in religious and professional circles
for individuals to seek sexual orientation change or sexual identity change
with full information offered about the options and their potential risks.
We would do well to put as much information as possible in the hands of
consumers so that they are able to make informed decisions and wise choices
among treatment options.
The results also suggest that it would be premature for professional
mental health organizations to invalidate efforts to change sexual orientation
and unwanted same-sex erotic attractions.

Stanton L. Jones is Provost (Chief Academic Officer) of Wheaton College
(IL) and has served a three-year term on the Council of Representatives
of the American Psychological Association. Mark A. Yarhouse is the Rosemarie
Scotti Hughes Endowed Chair and Professor of Psychology in the School of
Psychology and Counseling at Regent University.Article citation: Stanton L. Jones & Mark A. Yarhouse. (2011).
A longitudinal study of attempted religiously-mediated sexual orientation
change. Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy, Volume 37, pages 404-427.
The above article is a slightly edited press release. More information
can be found at www.exgaystudy.org
See,
in particular Responses
to criticism (including video).

Men and women religious are the unsung heroes of the Church in India,
who inspire others to respond with trust, humility and joy to the invitation
of the Lord to follow him, said Pope Benedict XVI Thursday as he met with
the IV and last group of Indian Bishops on their year long Ad limina pilgrimage
to Rome.

In an address which we publish in full below, the Pope focused in particular
on the Indian Churches contribution to society at large, their the various
educational and social institutions open to all, and the efforts made
by the whole Christian community to prepare the young citizens of your
noble country to build a more just and prosperous society:

Dear Brother Bishops,
I offer you a warm fraternal welcome on the occasion of your visit
ad Limina Apostolorum, a further occasion to deepen the communion that
exists between the Church in India and the See of Peter, and an opportunity
to rejoice in the universality of the Church. I wish to thank Cardinal
Oswald Gracias for his kind words offered on your behalf and in the name
of those entrusted to your pastoral care. My cordial greetings also go
to the priests, the men and women Religious, and laity whom you shepherd.
Please assure them of my prayers and solicitude.
The Church in India is blessed with a multitude of institutions which
are intended to be expressions of the love of God for humanity through
the charity and example of the clergy, religious and lay faithful who staff
them. By means of her parishes, schools and orphanages, as well as her
hospitals, clinics and dispensaries, the Church makes an invaluable contribution
to the well-being not only of Catholics, but of society at large. Among
these institutions in your region, a special place is held by the schools
which are an outstanding witness to your commitment to the education and
formation of our dear young people. The efforts made by the whole Christian
community to prepare the young citizens of your noble country to build
a more just and prosperous society have long been a hallmark of the Church
in your Dioceses and throughout India. In helping the spiritual, intellectual
and moral faculties of their students to mature, Catholic schools should
continue to develop a capacity for sound judgment and introduce them to
the heritage bequeathed to them by former generations, thus fostering a
sense of values and preparing their pupils for a happy and productive life
(cf. Gravissimum Educationis, 5). I encourage you to continue to pay close
attention to the quality of instruction in the schools present in your
Dioceses, to ensure that they be genuinely Catholic and therefore capable
of passing on those truths and values necessary for the salvation of souls
and the up-building of society.

Of course, Catholic schools are not the only means by which the Church
seeks to instruct and to edify her people in intellectual and moral truth.
As you know, all of the Churchs activities are meant to glorify God and
fill his people with the truth that sets us free (cf. Jn 8:32). This saving
truth, at the heart of the deposit of faith, must remain the foundation
of all the Churchs endeavours, proposed to others always with respect
but also without compromise. The capacity to present the truth gently but
firmly is a gift to be nurtured especially among those who teach in Catholic
institutes of higher education and those who are charged with the ecclesial
task of educating seminarians, religious or the lay faithful, whether in
theology, catechetical studies or Christian spirituality. Those who teach
in the name of the Church have a particular obligation faithfully to hand
on the riches of the tradition, in accordance with the Magisterium and
in a way that responds to the needs of today, while students have the right
to receive the fullness of the intellectual and spiritual heritage of the
Church. Having received the benefits of a sound formation and dedicated
to charity in truth, the clergy, religious and lay leaders of the Christian
community will be better able to contribute to the growth of the Church
and the advancement of Indian society. The various members of the Church
will then bear witness to the love of God for all humanity as they enter
into contact with the world, providing a solid Christian testimony in friendship,
respect and love, and striving not to condemn the world but to offer it
the gift of salvation (cf. Jn 3:17). Encourage those involved in education,
whether priests, religious or laity, to deepen their faith in Jesus Christ,
crucified and risen from the dead. Enable them to reach out to their neighbours
that, by their word and example, they may more effectively proclaim Christ
as the Way, the Truth and the Life (cf. Jn 14:6).

A significant role of witness to Jesus Christ is carried out in your
country by men and women religious, who are the often unsung heroes of
the Churchs vitality locally. Above and beyond their apostolic labours,
however, religious and the lives they lead are a source of spiritual fruitfulness
for the entire Christian community. As they open themselves to the grace
of God, religious men and women inspire others to respond with trust, humility
and joy to the invitation of the Lord to follow him.
In this regard, my Brother Bishops, I know that you are aware of the
many factors which inhibit spiritual and vocational growth, particularly
among young people. Yet we know that it is Jesus Christ alone who responds
to our deepest longings, and who gives true meaning to our lives. Only
in him can our hearts truly find rest. Continue, therefore, to speak to
young people and to encourage them to consider seriously the consecrated
or priestly life; speak with parents about their indispensible role in
encouraging and supporting such vocations; and lead your people in prayer
to the Lord of the harvest, that he may send many more labourers into this
harvest (cf. Mt 9:38).

With these thoughts, dear Brother Bishops, I renew to you my sentiments
of affection and esteem. I commend all of you to the intercession of Mary,
Mother of the Church. Assuring you of my prayers for you and for those
entrusted to your pastoral care, I am pleased to impart my Apostolic Blessing
as a pledge of grace and peace in the Lord.

Human Rights Concern Eritrea (HRCE), Christian Solidarity Worldwide
(CSW) and the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project (EHAHRDP)
today called upon the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) to conduct
a thorough investigation into the wide-ranging human rights violations
committed in Eritrea.
The call was issued during a side-meeting at the HRCs 18th Session,
where HRCE, CSW and EHAHRDP were joined by Human Rights Watch (HRW) in
condemning the severe human rights crisis currently underway in Eritrea.
The NGOs urged diplomats and the wider HRC to take robust action in response
to the findings of any investigation into the flagrant abuses committed
by the Eritrean regime against its own people, including the appointment
of a Special Rapporteur to address the situation if necessary.

In their contributions, the panelists covered a variety of grave issues,
including the detention of the G-11, a group of Eritrean officials including
Parliamentarians, government ministers a